The My Child Matters Awards: new funding, new countries, new hope.

On Jan 28, 2009, the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and partner Sanofi -Aventis announced the recipients of the third My Child Matters (MCM) Initiative Awards. Eight projects, proposed by teams from Burkina Faso, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Pakistan, and Paraguay, will receive funding of up to €50 000 each. Although the projects vary in scope, all refl ect the central aim of the MCM initiative: to fi ght childhood cancer in low-middle income countries by building treatment capacity. Childhood cancer is a problem worldwide, but with the most dramatic eff ects seen in nations with limited resources. This is well illustrated by the 80/20 divide: about 80% of childhood cancers occur in resource-strapped countries where survival is often 20% or less, whereas in developed countries, the ratio is around 20/80. With good ideas and motivated people, however, even small amounts of money can bring about positive change. Past recipients of MCM awards have achieved just that by pro moting public awareness of cancer and the importance of early detection, setting up cancer registries and clinics, and training medical personnel in 16 countries around the world. The new recipients continue this tradition. Muhammad Shamvil Ashraf, of the Children Cancer Foundation Pakistan Trust (Karachi, Pakistan), will use his team’s award to train paediatricians in the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and to provide basic oncology training to nurses, in the Pakistani regions of Sindh and Balochistan. “There is an alarmingly low index of suspicion [of cancer] on the part of doctors, which adds to [delays] in diagnosis and hence treatment”, he explains. “In Pakistan, more than 50% of [aff ected] children are either not diagnosed or are unable to get treatment due to lack of expertise or the simple inability to aff ord treatment. Our plan is to train doctors and nurses in the major cities of Sindh and Balochistan in paediatric oncology. They will be selected by conducting workshops in medical college hospitals in collaboration with the Pakistan Paediatric Association. Selected candidates will get handson experience at the Children Cancer Hospital (Karachi) for 3 months.” On returning to their local centres, physicians with enhanced skills and experience should be able to diagnose more children at an earlier stage, off ering them a greater hope of survival. As a mid-term goal, Shamvil Ashraf aims to set up communication channels, such as e-mail and telemedicine, to enable shared care. Also in Pakistan, Yasmin Bhurgri of the Karachi Cancer Registry plans to use her team’s award to establish the country’s fi rst paediatric cancer registry, and to initiate a referral system with the subsequent information. “The incidence of child hood cancers [...] over the last 15 years is high compared with the other countries of the region”, she explains. Yet, “even cancers with an optimistic prognosis in terms of cure and remission reach health care in an advanced stage, with a resultant depressing survival rate”, she adds. “A contributory factor is the substantial mismanagement and time loss between diagnosis and treatment, due to a non-existent referral system.” Setting up the registry and referral system should help reduce these problems, but as Bhurgri points out, optimum success requires training for health-care professionals in early detection, a further objective of the project. “The mid-term goal would be to establish the system in Karachi. The long-term goals would be to extend services to the province of Sindh and ultimately the entire country”, she concludes. Jabibi Noguera’s team at the Niños de Acosta Ñu Paediatric General Hospital in Asunción, Paraguay, plans to help train health-care personnel Projects to receive funding