150 Childhood Cancer Cases At Korle-Bu

One hundred and fifty childhood cancer cases, out of an expected 1,000 cases annually in the country, were reported at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in 2011

Of the 150 cases, about 30 of them were far advanced because they had been reported late at the hospital.

The KBTH and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) are the only hospitals that have paediatric cancer units in the country.

According to a consultant paediatrician at the Paediatric Cancer Unit of the KBTH, Dr Lorna Awo Renner, because many children lived far away from the two teaching hospitals, they did not have access to early detection and treatment of childhood cancer.

Cancer is a disease in which the body’s cells become abnormal and divide without control. Childhood cancers are often the result of the DNA changes in cells and take place very early in life, sometimes before birth.

Although very little is known about the cause of most childhood cancers, environmental factors such as radiation are recognised as some of the causative agents. Drugs, chemicals, infections or viruses such as Epstein Barr (E-B), Hepatitis B, the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) and genetic factors are also known to cause childhood cancer.

According to Dr Renner, more than 100,000 deaths resulting from childhood cancer globally could be prevented each year if all children had equal access to diagnosis and treatment.

She said childhood cancer formed only one per cent of all cancers in the country and indicated that when detected early, 75 per cent of the cases could be cured.

Dr Renner, therefore, called on all policy makers to reconsider their decision of not putting childhood cancer on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) because of fears that the cost of treating the disease would negatively affect the scheme.

According to her, about 40 per cent of childhood cancer cases were lymphomas, a cancer of the lymphocytes, a type of cell that formed part of the immune system, and would take only GH¢600 for its treatment.

The treatment of Leukaemia, which is most expensive and spans over three years, costs about GH¢1,000.

“As little as GH¢300 can be enough to buy drugs to treat and cure a child with cancer, and in some cases it can be as much as GH¢10,000,” she added.

She found it astounding that many expensive treatment ailments were on the NHIS, while the disease that affected vulnerable children who equally had the right to life was not on the NHIS list.

Dr Renner called on all parents to take note of symptoms such as white spots in the eyes or bulging eyeballs, unusual lumps or swellings in the body, especially the jaw, neck or stomach, persistent joint or bone pain, fever for more than two weeks, weight loss or bleeding and frequent headaches, vomiting or unsteady walking and report early to the nearest clinic to save the lives of the children.

The Chairman of the Ghana Parents’ Association for Childhood Cancers (GHAPACC), Dr Felix Kwame Aveh, also told th Graphic that the association presented a letter to officials of the NHIS and the Ministry of Health to reconsider the decision taken about childhood cancer and its placement on the scheme.

He said the response it got from the two offices was that the NHIS would collapse if childhood cancer was placed on the scheme as a result of the perception that its treatment was expensive.