1st International Conference on Pediatric Oncology

Faculty of the 3rd International Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Conference and 1st International Conference on Pediatric Oncology.

The First International Conference on Pediatric Oncology, held jointly with the Third International Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Conference, took place on July 8–10th in Karachi, Pakistan. The Pediatric Oncology Conference was a collaborative effort between Pakistani oncologists and INCTR and was supported by the Office of International Affairs of the National Cancer Institute, USA. Dr Aziza Shad, the recently appointed Director of INCTR USA and also the Director of Education for Pediatric Oncology worked closely with Dr Shamvil Ashraf, the Chairman of the Pediatric Oncology Organizing Committee in the planning of the program. The conference brought together experts from many different countries to provide training for young physicians, nurses and data management personnel who have an interest in pediatric cancer. Delegates and speakers from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Canada, UK, USA and Pakistan participated in the meeting.

The topics addressed during the three day meeting included leukemia, retinoblastoma, brain tumors, adolescent cancers, translational research, infections in the immunocompromised host, peripheral stem cell transplantation, and the late effects of therapy. A special session devoted to palliative and supportive care was included in the conference program. The Director and Co-Director of INCTR’s Palliative Care Program, Drs Stuart Brown and Fraser Black respectively, gave presentations on how to organize palliative care services in developing countries, INCTR’s efforts to create palliative care guidelines appropriate for developing countries and pain management in terminally ill patients. “Meet the Expert” sessions as well as a Tumor Board to discuss a pediatric cancer, Wilms’ tumor and an adult cancer, colon carcinoma were held.

During the meeting, discussions regarding the formation of a Pakistani Society of Pediatric Oncology were finalized, and the inauguration of the society announced.

INCTR had an active role in two pre-conference workshops – Oncology Nursing and Research Methodology.

Pre-Conference Workshops

• Research Methodology and Medical Ethics

This pre-conference workshop was held on July 7th. The objective of the workshop was to educate and motivate practicing physicians, scientists, post-graduate and medical students to undertake research, particularly in cancer. Dr Asim Belgaumi from the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Dr Shad chaired the workshop. The session began with a presentation on “Child Health Research in Developing Countries; A Luxury or a Necessity” from Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta of the Aga Khan University Hospital. He presented the global picture of childhood survival and mortality and discussed the importance of child health research and its role in improving childhood survival. Other topics presented during the workshop included ethics in medical research, study design, roles and responsibilities of the members of the research team, and the importance of data management. About 100 participants including foreign and Pakistani delegates attended the workshop.

• Oncology Nursing Workshop

The workshop on Oncology Nursing, organized by the Nursing Department of the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi was held on July 7 and 8th. Sixty-eight nurses from different parts of Pakistan involved in the care of patients suffering with cancer attended the workshop. The two-day workshop was comprehensive and many relevant issues related to cancer nursing were presented and discussed, among them, communication skills, counseling, pain management, nutrition in cancer, nursing care of patients and their families, ethical issues in end-of-life care and quality of life.

Palliative Care Team Visits Tanzania and Uganda

Tanzania

Palliative Care workshop participants (Ocean Cancer Road Institute Tanzania).

The INCTR Palliative Care Team – Dr Stuart Brown, Dr Fraser Black, Doug Ennals (social worker) and Virginia LeBaron (RN), and Sabine Perrier-Bonnet from INCTR’s French Branch, Alliance Mondiale Contre le Cancer, conducted a palliative care educational workshop at the Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar es Salaam on June 15-16th. The goal of the workshop was to provide palliative care education appropriate to the region in terms of culture, needs and resources. It was also an opportunity for the INCTR Palliative Care Team to gain an understanding of initiatives in palliative care that are presently on-going in the region. Over 40 participants included physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, counselors, health care advisors, program coordinators, data managers and researchers. Some of the participants were from non-governmental organizations, including the Tanzania Palliative Care Association. As per the meeting evaluation, the presentations were found to be beneficial to the work of the participants. Of particular value were discussions of pain assessment, symptom management (including pain, dyspnea, nausea and vomiting) as well as the importance of assessing and regularly re-assessing symptoms and the correct use of opioid analgesia. Two special topics were included: the problems and approaches to the assessment and management of pain in pediatric patients and palliative care of patients with HIV/AIDS.

In addition to the educational workshop, Sabine Perrier-Bonnet and Virginia LeBaron led a morning seminar for the ORCI nurses regarding chemotherapy administration and primary cancer prevention. The purpose of this seminar was to demonstrate how to safely prepare and administer chemotherapy, to review the nursing management of the side effects associated with chemotherapy and to discuss primary cancer prevention. Twenty-five nurses and one physician attended this seminar.

Uganda

The INCTR Palliative Care Team met with the Executive Director of the African Palliative Care Association (APCA), Dr Faith Mwangi Powell in Kampala, Uganda on June 22 and then with Hospice African Uganda (HAU) and the Mildmay Center on the 23rd. The purpose of these meetings was to learn more about the missions, objectives and activities of each of these organizations and to discuss ways in which INCTR could work with them in expanding palliative care services, which are desperately needed in Africa (for cancer as well as HIV). Particularly important were discussions on how to develop the training and education programs required for such an expansion and how to identify and overcome obstacles to opioid availability and use.

INCTR Palliative Care Staff in conjonction with colleagues in developing countries are in the process of preparing a web based Clinical Guidelines for Palliative Care.