Childhood Cancer
The good news is that most can be cured or a long-term remission achieved if prompt and essential treatment is both accessible and affordable. However, 80% of children with cancer are in resource-constrained countries where access to information, early detection and effective treatment and care is often poor. More than one in two of these children diagnosed with cancer will die, contributing significantly to the estimated 90.000 childhood cancer deaths annually, thus collectively childhood cancers represent an important global public health problem.
The UICC Childhood Cancer Initiative aims to address the major hurdles to local sustainability of childhood cancer programmes in low and middle-income countries, which include:
- Sustainable provision of treatment; specifically chemotherapy and associated supportive therapies and equipment
- Infrastructure support; provision of funds to buy, renovate or extend facilities to provide wards and laboratories as well as equip those facilities
- Professional development support; funding of staff training and long-term mentorship
- Access to care; funding travel expenses and family living expenses while attending therapy or provision of mechanisms such as home care or mobile clinics
See St Jude's cancer survival rates data.
Read more about the UICC childhood cancer projects: My Child Matters; Symphasis; Schellenberg.
