Synopsis:
Is it possible, and is it ethical to resource-adapt cancer treatment developed in high income countries for the benefit of children with cancer living in low- and middle-income settings?
This is the dilemma, and the challenge, faced by health care professionals in such countries who care for 80% of the world’s children who have cancer, and where the chance of cure often remains poor. Adapting cancer treatment is a key pillar of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer to improve the cure rates for children with cancer to 60% by 2030.
On International Childhood Cancer Day, February 15th, Professor Michael Sullivan will present his work, initiated on sabbatical in 2021, co-leading the development and implementation of the Global Childhood Cancer Guideline Collaboration; a collaboration between the International Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOP), the Paediatric Radiation Oncology Society, the International Paediatric Surgical Oncology Society, Children’s Cancer International (the global parent support group), supported and sponsored by the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The goal is to develop safe, effective, and affordable cancer treatment, within the resources available, wherever a child may live.
Speaker:
Professor Michael Sullivan is a Paediatric Oncologist in the Children’s Cancer Centre, The Royal Children’s Hospital, and a Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne. Professor Sullivan is graduate of the University of Otago Medical School (NZ). He dual trained in Paediatrics and Paediatric Oncology and his PhD investigated Genomic Imprinting and DNA Methylation in Wilms tumour. He is past president of SIOP Oceania, a member of the SIOP Board of Directors and the SIOP liaison to the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer.
Over the last 15 years Professor Sullivan has supported the development of child cancer care in Fiji, PNG, Timor-Leste, Nepal, Laos, and Cambodia and is now co-chair of the SIOP Global Health Network with 1400 members from 129 countries. In 2020 Professor Sullivan co-founded the ARIA Childhood Cancer Guideline Collaboration to develop resource-stratified guidelines, and an online decision-aid for the treatment of children with cancer in low and middle income countries.