Improve cancer care for 250 children in Malawi

World Child Cancer's project at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre is progressing well.  We would like to thank all our Global Giving supporters who have donated to the project this year. Your support has allowed us to continue supporting children with cancer in Malawi and providing training for the healthcare workers who treat them.  

Over the last 12 months over 220 children have been diagnosed and treated for cancer.   The number of children diagnosed and treated has been increasing annually by between 5-10% for the three years that World Child Cancer has been funding the project.  We believe that this is due to improved awareness amongst parents and primary healthcare workers of the curability of child cancer as increasing numbers of children survive.   The increase is also as a result of the refurbishment of the child cancer ward (funded by World Child Cancer in 2010) which increased capacity by 40%.

Survival rates for the most common child cancers are currently 50% – 60% for Burkitts lymphoma (an aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system) patients and 35% for children with Wilms tumour (a type of kidney cancer).    Overall survival rates have increased during 2011 but the most significant achievements have been in the development of new protocols, the consolidation of existing protocols and improved training for doctors and nurses.   The key activities have been:

• A reliable supply of chemotherapy for curative treatment and therapeutic opiate drugs for pain relief/palliative care have been funded by World Cancer. 
• In July 20011 Dr Simon Bailey from Victoria Royal Infirmary, Newcastle, UK visited the QECH for a week.   During the visit Dr Bailey worked with the project leader, Professor Elizabeth Molyneux, to develop a protocol for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.    The protocol is producing cure rates of 20% which is an amazing achievement considering that two years ago all children with leukaemia died.  He also worked on identifying children with brain tumours to improve the provision of effective palliative care.  He conducted training workshops every day of his visit and his ward rounds were used as another training opportunity for doctors and nurses. 
• In June 2011 Hannah Dilullo RVI (registered paediatric nurse) from Victoria Royal Infirmary visited the QECH for 5 days to conduct a series of workshops for nurses on treating children with cancer. Workshops focused on infection control, infection management, administration of chemotherapy drugs and nutritional support.  
• In September 2011 Dr Trijn Israels from AMC University/Emma Children’s Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands visited the QECH.  During her visit she worked with Professor Molyneux on improving the protocol for Burkitts lymphoma and trained a new member of staff as a data manager for the new child cancer database.
• A new child cancer database has been established to capture information about patients to improve follow up and to record information on treatment plans and protocols – essential for improving overall survival rates. 
• A poster awareness campaign has been funded by World Child Cancer.  Around 1,000 posters promoting awareness of the early signs of some of the most common child cancers have been distributed around healthcare centres in Southern Malawi.  The posters are written in the local language and use visual images to communicate the main points.  

Thank you for your support and may we wish you Seasons Greetings.