UCI highlights advances made in treatment of childhood cancer

Kampala, Uganda  | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda has made strides in treatment of childhood cancers.

At a press conference held on Saturday at the Uganda Cancer Institute, Dr Jackson Orem the Executive Director said that unlike before, the institute is now better positioned to handle childhood cancer cases leading to better treatment outcomes.

Uganda joined the rest of the world yesterday to mark International Childhood Cancer Day which is an annual global collaborative campaign to raise awareness about childhood cancer, and to express support for children and adolescents with cancer, the survivors and their families.

Dr Orem said that the institute came up with a cost-effective pediatric cancer treatment programme last year that is helping them save lives without having to incur a lot of costs since already the perception was that treatment is too high for especially burkitts lymphoma which is among the highest children cancers recorded after leukaemia.

He said already, they are using advanced technology called immunotherapy to treat some of these cancers which he says is mostly a privilege that Uganda has over others in the region.

He said, unlike other poor countries that meet a lot of challenges in adopting new treatments, the country has collaborations with international agencies like Fred Hutch and recently Cambridge something that has helped them revamp their research that they easily translate into treatment regimens.

Prof. Charles Olweny who is a member of the board at the institute says Uganda’s history having initially been a lymphoma treatment centre treating child tumours puts it a bar higher in terms of treatment for children.

He said even as earliest as the 1970s, Uganda would treat Kenyan children who had cancer.

But even as these advancements are there, experts say survival rate from childhood cancers is still low at 30%.

Globally, each year, more than 300,000 children ages birth to 19 years are diagnosed with cancer around the world. Approximately 8 in 10 of these children live in low and middle-income countries where their survival rate is very low and yet the Target Goal of the WHO Global Childhood Cancer Initiative is to eliminate all pain and suffering of children fighting cancer and achieve at least 60% survival for all children diagnosed with cancer around the world by 2030.

National celebrations are being held in Arua which also mark the official opening of the West Nile region cancer treatment centre.

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