KARACHI, July 10: The first international conference on paediatric oncology concluded here on Sunday with formation of the Pakistan Society of Paediatric Oncology aiming to provide improved diagnosis and treatment facilities to children suffering from cancer and to train more doctors in this discipline.

Dr Shamvil Ashraf of the Children Cancer Foundation was nominated the first president of this society. The PSPO will launch various training programmes for doctors to increase the number of paediatric oncologists in the country.

At the concluding session, experts said that there were only five paediatric oncologists working in the country while 15 Pakistani paediatric oncologists were working abroad. The number of local paediatric oncologists was not sufficient to cope with increasing incidence of cancer in children.

Pakistani paediatric oncologists, who came from various countries to attend the conference, extended their full cooperation in providing doctors with training opportunities.

The global education unit’s chairperson of International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research, Dr Aziza Shad, said INCTR in collaboration with Pakistan Society of Paediatric Oncology intended to offer a fellowship training programme for local doctors in the discipline of cancer among children.

She said that Pakistani doctors associated with public sector institutions would be preferred for the training programme. The USA office of INCTR, which was established some six years ago in Brussels under the supervision of Dr Ian Magrath, was sponsoring series of research-cum-training programmes for young doctors associated with the developing countries.

As for Pakistan, Dr Aziza Shad said that local doctors were offered six months training in reputed institutions of the USA, however, reluctance on part of many to return back to their countries of origin, had led to certain changes in the INCTR strategy.

Three months training would be given to local professionals following which they would be invited to any of the reputable cancer research and treatment institutions in the USA for hands on training. The selected doctors would be required to furnish a bond with the institutions or hospital they were associated with ensuring that the rampant issue of brain drain was contained, she elaborated.

According to her, around 18 doctors associated with different government hospitals across the country would be selected for the training programme this year.

The senior oncologist also referred to her deep inclination to develop a ‘palliative treatment care centre’ for children suffering from cancer in Pakistan, which may be gradually replicated across the country. “We ought to ensure that our children suffering from non-treatable type of tumour may have a dignified existence and pain-free span of life,” she said.

Other experts stressed that stringent action should be taken against quacks for not referring the patient to doctors for proper diagnosis and treatment and thus increasing the severity of the disease. In this regard, the panel of experts recommended formation of a group from SAARC countries to cope with this challenge. They stressed on effective role of NGOs and media to create awareness among the masses as well as general physicians about cancer in children.

Prof Nizamul Haq of the Child Aid Association, Dr Shamvil Ashraf of the Children Cancer Foundation, and Dr Shahid Kamal of KIRAN Patients Welfare Association told about the performance of their NGOs in providing treatment facilities to cancer patients.

Dr Shamvil Ashraf said that the Children Cancer Foundation was running children cancer hospital located in Federal B. Area, where over 500 children attended OPD and over 200 children get chemotherapy every month. At present, he said, some 100 children are admitted in the hospital. Monthly expenditure of the hospital has increased to Rs1.5 million, of which only 20 per cent was being paid by parents of the children and remaining expenses were borne by the foundation.

Prof Nizamul Haq said that the Child Aid Association was running the cancer unit at the National Institute of Child Health and providing diagnosis and treatment facilities free of cost to patients.

In all, nine state-of-the-art lectures and 12 free papers were presented during the conference on Sunday.

Later talking to newsmen, Dr Aziza Shad of INCTR said that this was really a historic event and gave excellent outcome. She said, “We will organize such conferences in other participatory countries as well. We will collaborate with each other and prepare a guideline to address issues like infection and blood transfusion in cancer child patients,” she added.—PPI/APP