St. Jude Children's Research Hospital collaborates with health care workers globally to improve pediatric cancer treatments
Newswise — Motivated clinicians and an Internet connection combined with computers and e-mail access have the power to transform pediatric cancer treatment in the most remote corners of earth, according to a St. Jude investigator writing in a recent issue of The Lancet Oncology.
“A successful teleoncology program does not require a lot of expensive equipment. The most important element is having committed people,” said Ibrahim Qaddoumi, M.D., an assistant member in the St. Jude Oncology department and telemedicine director of the hospital’s International Outreach Program (IOP). He co-authored a recent report on telemedicine as a tool for improving worldwide cancer treatment.
Like other telemedicine efforts, teleoncology initiatives range from e-mail exchanges, real-time videoconferencing or educational seminars available through Web sites like St. Jude’s www.Cure4Kids.org, a program dedicated to supporting the care of children with catastrophic diseases by providing high-quality educational materials and online collaboration tools. Cure4Kids provides educational content to more than 17,000 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals in 169 countries.
Such activities unite providers worldwide to review pathology and radiology images and other important clinical data in hopes of improving cancer diagnosis and treatment. Qaddoumi said that regardless of the technology, successful teleoncology programs should reflect the priorities, needs and resources of health care providers working in developing nations or underserved regions of the U.S.
Those needs are expected to grow in the next 20 years when the global incidence of cancer is predicted to jump 50 percent, with most new patients living in developing nations, the researchers noted, citing the work of a 2007 Institute of Medicine committee and other researchers.
Meanwhile, the childhood cancer survival gap remains stubbornly wide. With the right diagnosis and treatment, cancer is curable in as many as 70 percent of young patients, yet the disease remains the second leading killer of children in many Latin American countries.
“Teleoncology is not a panacea for global oncology problems,” the authors noted, but Qaddoumi said he hopes to create greater awareness of how teleoncology can be used to improve childhood cancer treatment worldwide and to prompt more institutions to get involved.
Teleoncology often works best as part of a broader institutional partnership, the authors noted. One approach matches hospitals in the developed and developing world in long-term partnerships known as twinning programs. St. Jude is involved in twinning programs in 20 countries worldwide. “Evidence suggests that twinning improves cancer survival in low-income and middle-income countries; and the integration of teleoncology into twinning programs maximizes clinical benefits and the effective use of resources,” the authors noted.
St. Jude Children’s Research HospitalSt. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering research and treatment of children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Ranked the No. 1 pediatric cancer hospital by Parents magazine, St. Jude is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children, and has treated children from all 50 states and from around the world. St. Jude has developed research protocols that helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancer from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened to almost 80 percent today. St. Jude is the national coordinating center for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium and the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. In addition to pediatric cancer research, St. Jude is also a leader in sickle cell disease research and is a globally prominent research center for influenza.
Founded in 1962 by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world, publishing more research articles than any other pediatric cancer research center in the United States. St. Jude treats more than 5,400 patients each year and is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. St. Jude is financially supported by thousands of individual donors, organizations and corporations without which the hospital’s work would not be possible. In 2010, St. Jude was ranked the most trusted charity in the nation in a public survey conducted by Harris Interactive, a highly respected international polling and research firm. For more information, go to www.stjude.org.
Expert Available:Ibrahim Qaddoumi, M.D., is an assistant member in the Department of Oncology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He is also telemedicine director of the hospital’s International Outreach Program. Qaddoumi can address topics related to pediatric oncology in countries with limited resources as well as applications of telemedicine in oncology. His research focus also includes brain tumors and the eye cancer retinoblastoma.
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