Early Diagnosis Key to Child Cancer Survival In Africa

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 400,000 children and adolescents develop cancer every year. In high-income countries, where care and services are easily accessible, more than 80% of children with cancer are cured. But it's a different case scenario for children in low- to middle-income countries where less than 30% are reported to survive the disease. This is often as a result of a lack of diagnosis, misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis or obstacles accessing care in resource-constrained settings.

It is estimated that half of the global cases of childhood cancers could occur in Africa by 2050, with 56.3 cases per million people currently having the disease in the region, says a new report, writes Ijeoma Ukazu for SciDev.Net.

In South Africa, a University of Cape Town Associate Professor Marc Hendricks - who is based at Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town - has said scientists and clinicians have made massive strides with improving childhood cancer outcomes in the last few decades. He said this can be directly attributed to collaborative research efforts led by large international consortia in Europe and the United States. Hendricks said that while advancements have been made over time, this area of medicine is constantly evolving.

One of the most exciting research developments that has come to light recently includes the molecular reclassification of the disease. This process allows clinicians to use molecular signatures of tumours to categorise the risks associated with the type of cancer, predict the prognosis accurately, and select the most appropriate treatment for the patient.