The Philippine Canserve Project: Expanding Access to Treatment and Improving Care for Retinoblastoma and Childhood Leukemia

Out of ~ 3300 (IARC estimate) expected childhood cancer new cases each year, only 1000 are cared for and the remaining 2000 are neither diagnosed nor treated. Leukemia and retinoblastoma account approximately 60% of these cases. Childhood cancers are often diagnosed at late stages, so that curative treatment is more difficult or out of reach, resulting in only 20% attaining long-term survival. Treatment decisions rely mainly on the financial capacities of the families. Among the 1000 children, 1 out of 5 receives treatment following local gold standards as paying patients. Protocols are strongly modified for the others, in particular for indigent patients. Moreover, treatments are not standardized across the country. Other barriers to early detection and diagnosis include lack of support specialists particularly oncology nurses and pathologists; a low index of suspicion (even incompetence) among the frontline healthcare workers; an underdeveloped and inefficient referral system; and difficulty of access to information. Financial resources remain the main barrier to treatment. The My Child Matters project is led by the Philippine Children's Medical Center in Quezon City.

Main Objectives of the Project

• Improve the survival rates of retinoblastoma and childhood leukemia in The Philippines via:
• Expansion of treatment to at least 50% of patients who will develop the disease, by training and education of professional staff of targeted regional centers and development of cost-effective standard treatment protocol
• Collection of pooled-data from participating centers with the goal of developing an evidence-based plan of what is needed to further improve cancer care in the country
• Increase access to care via improved training of primary healthcare givers, and public information dissemination about early detection and improved follow-up, while building sustainable public-private partners to better address financial barriers to care

Benefits of the Project

• Expansion of access to care, improvement of supportive care and diagnostic capabilities, decrease of therapy abandonment and late diagnosis, and establishment of treatment guidelines adapted to local resources, computerized patient database and disease registry. This will translate to better survival outcomes and quality of life for children afflicted with cancer
• Creation of a dedicated paediatric oncology unit with programs addressing the psychosocial, emotional spiritual and financial concerns of the child with cancer that will largely benefit the families. Established referral network through five regional centers capable of treating patients effectively and improving access to care 
• Development of effective and sustainable programs through collaboration with government and private agencies to create a positive impact on paediatric cancer control and put childhood cancer at the forefront of the national health agenda

Location