Dogs, donors and Chinese scientists help sick Spanish children

‌Inside Sant Joan de Deu hospital (SJD) two happy dogs, Tuna and Mona, administer smiles and prescribe pats on the head. It's a pioneering way to give children moments of happiness at SJD where many fight some of the world's rarest diseases.

‌More than 300 million people in the world suffer from some 7,000 rare diseases and half of them are children. Even just diagnosing these diseases can take as long as four years.

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‌Killer rare diseases that only affect children

At the SJD, CGTN meets Feng from Beijing who suffers from neuroblastoma, a cancer that mostly affects children. She's only 11 but has already been battling this disease for six years. Today is a good day, she feels healthy and happy but has already suffered two relapses and another could end her life.

‌Another child is suffering from Ewing Sarcoma, a bone cancer that primarily affects children, and they are lucky to have a diagnosis and a treatment plan. Fifty percent of patients with rare diseases are still undiagnosed.

‌Global collaborations create ground-breaking treatments

‌Hope comes in the form of international initiatives which help researchers share knowledge, resources, and results. As these diseases are so rare, the only way to study them effectively is for doctors and researchers to work together across the world.

‌One pioneering program between China and Spain sees top Chinese researchers work on ground-breaking new treatments. One important collaboration between Spain and China has been happening since 2017.

‌Over 140 Chinese children like Feng have come to this hospital in Barcelona for treatment and successful clinical trials. Now top Chinese researchers from Shanghai's Fudan Hospital university are also coming here to help develop new treatments and therapies.

‌The hospital even uses alternative Chinese medicine techniques like acupuncture.

T‌he children who die young

"Many children who suffer severe conditions don't make it to five-years-old," says Joan Comella, CJD's Director of Research, Innovation and Learning. "They die before that, you know? "It's a drama," he continues to CGTN. "People think that it's a problem of others but it's not the case, when you take all these rare diseases together it's quite common.”

‌Through private funding and collaboration Comella says great strides can be made.‌ "For example, for one rare cancer we held some innovative clinical trials with innovative treatment and more than 140 patients from China came here to Barcelona to be treated.

‌"Using the same framework we have trained medical teams in China so they can treat those patients locally, so I mean it's not just a matter of making patients travel around the globe but also to empower and to train people locally to have that kind of expertise.”

‌"The only way to advance is through collaboration”

‌Angel Montero is SJD's Therapy Development in Paediatric Oncology expert and he is unequivocal.‌ CGTN meets him in the SJD Paediatric Cancer Center, a building entirely dedicated to the treatment and research of rare cancers and diseases in children.

‌It exists thanks to the generosity of donors like Leo Messi, Barcelona football club, and many others.‌ "The only way to advance in rare diseases such as paediatric cancer is collaboration and working together," says Montero.

China-Spain collaboration

‌We are starting a very nice collaboration with China," he continues. "This comes through the initiative of the Chinese Scholarship Council, and specific students, brilliant students.”

‌One student from Shanghai's Fudan University will spend two years at SJD's labs working on ground-breaking treatments.

‌"We got applications from many students all around the world," Montero explains. "Fudan is one of the best universities in the world so once we had one candidate from Fudan with some brilliant achievements supporting his application it was impossible to refuse.”

‌"They are more than welcome to come here and join us and of course I would like to have many more of these brilliant guys here.”

‌"We hope we can achieve some ground-breaking results”

‌From the Chinese side it is also a great opportunity to work in a global team at the world class SJD hospital facilities. CGTN spoke to Dr. Yan Wangjun who's a Chief Physician, Professor at Fudan and Director of Shanghai Cancer Centre.

‌"Great progress has been made on treatments for common tumours we see in lung, breast, and urological cancers," he says. "But we haven't seen big breakthroughs in areas like bone metastasis, or sarcoma.”

‌"I'm really looking forward to our students' collaboration in Barcelona and seeing some results of research in key areas of immunotherapy and the development of new medicines. Through this cooperation with Spain we hope to achieve some ground-breaking results for patients and strengthen ties for more joint projects like this one.”

‌For Feng and millions of children like her, collaborations like these mean hope of a better future. You can donate to SJD's research here.