Extracts from a news release from WHO Africa Regional Office. Full text: https://www.afro.who.int/news/beating-childhood-cancers-through-early-de...
--
11 August 2021
James is one of the approximately 400 000 children and adolescents who are diagnosed with cancer every year globally. In Ghana, about 1200 children under the age of 15 are estimated to develop cancer annually. In addition to leukaemia, lymphoma, retinoblastoma, Wilms’ tumour, soft tissue sarcoma and neuroblastoma are among the most common forms in the country...
According to Professor Lorna Awo Renner, Head of the Paediatric Oncology Unit at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, 80% of childhood cancers are curable. “But this is dependent on early detection and progressive treatment,” she says.
Although more than 80% of children with cancer live in developing countries like Ghana, only about 20% to 30% of them receive such treatment...
--
Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA Coordinator, neil@hifa.org www.hifa.org
