A framework to develop adapted treatment regimens to manage pediatric cancer in low‐ and middle‐income countries: The Pediatric Oncology in Developing Countries (PODC) Committee of the International Pediatric Oncology Society (SIOP)

Abstract

Many children with cancer in low-and middle-income countries are treated in hospitals lacking key infrastructure, including diagnostic capabilities, imaging modalities, treatment components, supportive care, and personnel. Childhood cancer treatment regimens adapted to local conditions provide an opportunity to cure as many children as possible with the available resources, while working to improve services and supportive care. This paper from the Adapted Treatment Regimens Working Group of the Pediatric Oncology in Developing Countries committee of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology outlines the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of adapted regimens and specifies levels of services needed to deliver them.

Improving survival outcomes of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A 25‐year experience from a single center in Saudi Arabia

“…A standardized description of medical care scale developed by the Pediatric Oncology in Developing Countries Committee of the International Pediatric Oncology Society was used to characterize improvements in infrastructure and treatment made over time (Table ) . The care scale ranged from level 0 (pilot treatments) to level 4 (state‐of‐the‐art treatment) .…”

Optimizing outcomes for children with non‐Hodgkin lymphoma in low‐ and middle‐income countries by early correct diagnosis, reducing toxic death and preventing abandonment

“…However, implementing this intensive strategy involves overcoming many challenges at each step, and in many low‐income countries (LIC) it is simply not feasible, and lower dose regimens are the only alternative (Depani et al , ; Buckle et al , ; Stanley et al , ). Although such regimens yield EFS lower than the 90% achieved in HIC, they allow a subset of patients to be cured without excess toxicity and are feasible even in the most basic healthcare systems (Howard et al , ,b, , ).…”

The COVID‐19 pandemic: A rapid global response for children with cancer from SIOP, COG, SIOP‐E, SIOP‐PODC, IPSO, PROS, CCI, and St Jude Global

“…The WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC), launched in 2018, has set an ambitious goal of improving survival rates for the 90% of the world's children who live in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LIMC) to 60% by 2030 1,2 . The GICC has identified six common index cancers—acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), Burkitt lymphoma (BL), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), retinoblastoma, Wilms tumor, and low‐grade gliomas (LGGs)—all have a very good prognosis in high‐income countries (HICs) and can be treated with curative intent in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs), using established standards of care or resource‐adapted treatment regimens such as those previously published by the SIOP‐PODC (Pediatric Oncology in Developing Countries) group 3,4‐8 . Here our specific focus is on these index cancers as they account for the majority of cancers seen in HIC and LMICs, and the core principles for care and treatment of these cancers are generalizable across most other cancers seen in childhood.…”