KARACHI, May 31: A large number of children in Pakistan lose their fight against cancer only because either their parents are not aware of the medical urgency needs to be shown in childhood cancer or the physician handling such cases fail to refer them to proper healthcare facilities in time.

Cancer in children usually spreads fast. But, at the same time, it has a high cure rate: about 80 per cent in the developed world. In Pakistan, a cure of 60 per cent could be achieved, provided an early diagnosis is made.

These were some important points highlighted at a press conference organised at the Children Cancer Hospital, a project of Children Cancer Foundation Pakistan Trust, on Tuesday.

Explaining the challenges, Dr Shamvil Ashraf, child oncologist and chief executive of the hospital, said that creating awareness was equally vital as providing quality care.

“We lose 30 to 40 per cent patients either because they report very late or the patient is taken away by families against medical advice. The delay in diagnosis and treatment makes the disease incurable,” he said.

Giving some statistics, Dr Syed Ahmer Hamid said though it was difficult to tell the exact number of childhood cancer cases since there was no national cancer registry, it was estimated that about 7,000 new cases of childhood cancer were reported annually in the country. Fifty per cent of these children died before they could reach any hospital.

“Our annual new cases have increased from 137 from 1999 to 445 in 2010. The outpatient visits have increased from 3,714 to 13,129 last year. The expenses, which are solely met through donations, currently stood at Rs80 million,” he said, adding that most patients were non-affording and provided free treatment at the hospital.

The CCH, he said, currently operating at a smaller place which was inadequate to meet the growing needs of patients and efforts were being made to set up a bigger hospital with all relevant research and training facilities.