China's Top Departments: Hematology at Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

If you or a loved one is facing a blood disorder — especially leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, or a condition requiring stem cell transplantation or CAR-T therapy — the Department of Hematology at Ruijin Hospital is among the most prestigious centers in China and the world.

Founded in the 1970s and developed alongside the Shanghai Institute of Hematology (established by Academician Wang Zhenyi in 1987), the department is a national center integrating clinical care, basic research, and translational medicine.

Designations:

• National Key Discipline
• National Key Clinical Specialty (Hematology) of the Ministry of Health
• "211 Project" key discipline
• "985 Project" translational medicine base for leukemia

Platforms:

• State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics (approved 2001, rated A+ for four consecutive evaluations, restructured in 2023 as the State Key Laboratory of Omics and Disease)
• First National Center for Translational Medicine (2017)
• National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure for Translational Medicine research ward operational since 2020

Scale: 330 beds (including 140 clean beds and 62 transplant rooms); 10 senior attending physicians and 15 associate senior physicians

Network: Ruijin Hematology Medical Consortium covers more than 50 hematology centers across 26 provinces

At Medora, we help international patients connect with Ruijin's hematology team. Here's what you need to know.

Expert Team: "Four Academicians from One School"

The department has produced four academicians across three generations — a rare concentration of excellence.

Members of the team have also been elected foreign academicians of national academies in the US, France, the UK, and other countries.

Core Strengths

1. The "Shanghai Protocol" for Leukemia (APL Differentiation Therapy)

This is the department's most celebrated achievement — one that changed the history of cancer treatment worldwide.

• First in the world (1988) to treat acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), achieving a complete remission rate above 90%
• First to demonstrate that arsenic trioxide (ATO) specifically induces apoptosis in APL cells
• Combined ATRA + ATO: complete remission rate of 93.5%, with a 4-year disease-free survival above 95%
• Made APL the first essentially curable acute myeloid leukemia worldwide — internationally recognized as the "Shanghai Protocol"

What this means for you: If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with APL, Ruijin's team has the deepest experience in the world with the therapy that transformed this once-fatal disease into a highly curable one.

2. Targeted Therapy and Cellular Immunotherapy

• Extension of synergistic targeted therapy to lymphoma and multiple myeloma
• CAR-T cell therapy: among the first certified demonstration centers in China
• In April 2025, issued the country's first prescription for pirtobrutinib, a non-covalent BTK inhibitor, offering a new option for patients resistant to covalent BTK inhibitors

3. Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Gene Therapy

• Autologous/allogeneic transplantation, including haploidentical transplantation
• Exploratory gene therapy for thalassemia and hemophilia

4. Subspecialties

The department covers the full spectrum of hematological diseases:

• Leukemia
• Lymphoma
• Myeloma
• Bone marrow failure diseases
• Hemostasis and thrombosis disorders
• Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation & cell therapy

Honors and Academic Impact

• June 2024: The Hematological Translational Medicine Innovation Team received the 2023 State Scientific and Technological Progress Award (Innovation Team) — the only team so honored nationwide that year

International awards (each granted to Chinese scholars for the first time):

• The Sjöberg Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

• The Ernest Beutler Prize (USA)

• The AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) Innovation and Achievement Award

• The INSERM International Prize (France)

• The Ham-Wasserman Lecture Award of the American Society of Hematology

• China's highest science and technology award (2010, Academician Wang Zhenyi)

Academic output (through December 2023):

• 958 papers (399 with impact factor >10)
• 60,063 citations
• 39 monographs
• 78 patents granted (including 10 international)

Third-party ranking (Haodf 2025): Hematology ranked No. 7 nationally (No. 3 in another ranking)

Location

Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine No. 197 Ruijin Er Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, China Postal code: 200025

Shanghai is China's largest city with two international airports (Pudong PVG and Hongqiao SHA), excellent global connectivity, and world-class hospitality infrastructure.

---

This guide is prepared for an international audience. If you need assistance with medical consultation, appointment booking, or travel arrangements to Ruijin Hospital's Hematology Department, contact Medora for personalized support.