Childhood cancer: lack of facilities raising mortality rate

Lack of proper organised facilities for the treatment of children suffering from cancer causing high mortality rate by 50 to 60 percent in Pakistan, learnt Business Recorder here on Saturday. Each year more than 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer. Of this 80% are in resource-constrained countries where access to information, early detection and effective treatment and care is generally lacking.
Some 7000 children suffer from cancer every year in Pakistan, one in two of these children are diagnosed with cancer could not survive due to lack of proper children cancer treatment centres. Experts believe that 60 percent survival rate among children suffering from cancer could be achieved if they are diagnosed early and get adequate treatment.
They underscored that the incidence of cancer in children as compared to adult is low. Prominent cancer specialist Dr Muhammed Shamvil Ashraf, Chief Executive Children Cancer Hospital said most of the children in developing countries like Pakistan can also be cured if prompt and essential treatment is accessible. He pointed out that there are only thirteen hospitals in the country where proper treatment for children suffering from cancer is available.
He said that Children Cancer Hospital (CCH) in Karachi is a philanthropic health facility where treatment is being offered free of cost to all child patients. He said that Pakistan has just only 15 specialist doctors, of them 7 belong to Karachi. He noted that in Karachi National Institute of Child Health (NICH) is the only government run hospital where children suffering from cancer are being cured.
To a query that why children get cancer, Dr Shamvil said virus, chemicals, environmental pollution and radiation may play role in some childhood cancer. Blood cancer, cancer of lymph glands, brain and spinal cord tumours, eye cancer, bone tumour, soft tissue sarcomas are among other kinds of cancer that prevails in children, Dr Shamvil added. He underscored that chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy are the some of the treatment for child cancer, available in Pakistan. Dr Shamvil urged government to constitute special units in hospital with state of the art equipment in order to curb the increasing mortality rate among the children suffering from cancer.