by Miguela Caniza and Sadaf Altaf
Similar cancer treatment regimens might have a different outcome based on the access to practice and resources of best supportive care during cancer management. In low resource settings, suboptimal supportive care results in delays and inaccurate diagnosis of cancer and less than ideal care of cancer that unfortunately end up with lower survival rates. Recognizing the tremendous impact of best supportive care during cancer treatment in pediatrics, the Global Health Network's Supportive Care Working Group (GHN-SC WG) commits to improve and strengthen supportive care measures for children suffering from cancer in all regions of the world.
The Co-Chairs
of the GHN-SC WG, Dr. Miguela Caniza and Dr. Sadaf Altaf, joined efforts to bring
their expertise and the SIOP Global Health Network membership to address the
most pressing issues in supportive care including infections, safe blood products,
and rehabilitation medicine. Dr Caniza, a pediatric infectious disease expert
from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, USA, and Dr Altaf, a pediatric oncologist
practicing at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Pakistan, have complementary
skills to lead actions addressing supportive care with the global community.
Their philosophy is to collaborate and share ideas and resources between high
and limited resource settings. During their meetings, they invite SIOP
representatives to share updates on supportive care measures across the continents,
and to review progress reports of ongoing research efforts and educational
resources. Also, as leaders of a professional community, they collaborate with other
Working Groups for combined sessions including the Nursing, Palliative Care and
Nutrition Working Groups. The GHN-SC WG has incorporated the WHO- Global Initiative
for Childhood Cancer that aims to raise survival for every child worldwide to
60% by 2030 as a key agenda item with regular updates on the progress from
various regions.
GHN-SC WG
activities include:
- Development of a grid of Education, Research,
Resource Identification and Connection to intersect with Infection Care
and Prevention, Blood Safety and Holistic Care.
- Strategic monthly meeting of the two Co-Chairs
to plan actions and meetings of the Working Group. These meetings are called Q1M, so far 19
meetings have been conducted.
- Collaborative and synergistic meeting called
Q2M gathers a larger group of participants and occurs on the third
Thursday of every other month. All members of GHN-SC WG as well as any
member from other Working Groups and SIOP networks with interest in
supportive care is invited to attend.
- Development of a new team within the GHN-SC WG
focusing on Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. This was created to bring
holistic care to the forefront of supportive care in childhood cancer
care.
- Conducting educational sessions at the SIOP Congress
annually. A virtual session was conducted in 2021, and an onsite
educational session is planned for SIOP 2022 when a collaboration between
Nursing Network, Supportive Care Network and Global Health Network will
take place in Barcelona.
All
interested in supportive care activities focusing on education and research are
invited to attend the GHN-Supportive care WG meeting to connect and contribute towards
improving outcomes and saving lives.
Pediatric infectious disease expert from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, USA
Co-Chair of the SIOP GHN-Supportive Care WG
Dr Sadaf Altaf
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