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Improving Early Diagnosis, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Children with Retinoblastoma in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa

This project is being undertaken by AMCC (INCTR’s French Branch) in collaboration with the Ophthalmology Unit of the Curie Institute in Paris.  This project has been on-going since November 2011 when it was launched in Bamako, Mali.  The project is largely supported by the Fondation Sanofi-Espoir along with other sources of support.  Drugs for the treatment of children with retinoblastoma are provided by GFAOP.  The program is underway in Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Madagascar.

The major achievements of this project to date include

• Complete remission in 80% of children presenting with early stage retinoblastoma in Mali.
• Conservative treatment with thermo-chemotherapy was introduced in 2014 with success.
• All children who required an enucleation have benefited from having a prosthetic eye.
• Training of ophthalmologists at the various centers in participating countries has been provided by the Institute Curie.
• Training has been provided in France (Prothelem, Paris) in the fabrication of prosthetic eyes.
• A research project with the Department of Pathology at Bamako, the Institute Curie (Paris, Franc) and the Garrahan Hospital (Buenos Aires, Argentina) has been undertaken with the goal of identifying genes involved in the development and progression of retinoblastoma – including both cases that were diagnosed early and those diagnosed at later stages.
• Establishment of a network related to retinoblastoma for French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries – the first meeting of the group was held in 2015 at the Institute Curie in Paris, France.
• Presentation of achievements to date at international meetings such as AORTIC.

For more information about this program, contact: contact@amcc-cancer.org