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Management of Childhood Solid Tumours in Third World Countries

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The Surgery of Childhood Tumors

Abstract

Children in poor countries are entitled, as a fundamental human right, to treatment for curable and potentially curable diseases, and most paediatric solid tumours would fall into this category. However such children are significantly disadvantaged by the lack of the material, human and financial resources required to treat solid tumours. Strategies must be developed to accommodate these resource deficiencies into effective protocols. Waiting and hoping for the resource deficiencies to be addressed by governments or foreign aid is not a solution.

It is highly unlikely that enough paediatric oncologists can be imported or trained locally in the short term, or indeed the fairly long term, to have any meaningful impact on service delivery. Novel staffing strategies must be developed. However the human resource deficiencies go far beyond a shortage of oncologists to include surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, pathologists, radiologists, pharmacists, dieticians, physiotherapists and various laboratory based physicians. Thus applying protocols derived in the developed world to patients in Africa or in poor countries elsewhere may be inappropriate.

To convince governments that paediatric surgical oncology is a cost effective exercise, with important spin-offs for related disciplines, it is essential to focus on high prevalence tumours with reasonable expectations of cure. This requires initial data collection to determine priorities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatric Surgery, Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, Bellair Road, Cato Manor, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 4000, South Africa

    Larry Hadley MB, ChB, FRCSEd, FCPaed Surg

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  1. Larry Hadley MB, ChB, FRCSEd, FCPaed Surg
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Correspondence to Larry Hadley MB, ChB, FRCSEd, FCPaed Surg .

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  1. Surgical Paediatrics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Robert Carachi

  2. Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

    Jay L. Grosfeld

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Hadley, L. (2016). Management of Childhood Solid Tumours in Third World Countries. In: Carachi, R., Grosfeld, J. (eds) The Surgery of Childhood Tumors. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48590-3_33

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