Over 90% of children in the world diagnosed with cancer live in low or low-middle income countries (LMICs) where the cure rate is under 30% compared to greater than 85% in high-income countries. The health disparities contributing to the poor outcomes in children with cancer living in LMICs is certainly multifactorial, but closely related to supportive care; oncologists must utilize adapted reduced intensity regimens to mitigate the risk of death from infection and treatment related mortality. Supportive care comprises broad, multidisciplinary services to manage the side effects, improve adherence of therapy, and ultimately achieve optimal health outcomes at all stages in the cancer journey. Effective measures to enhance the delivery of supportive care improve survival and decrease the burden of disease in children with cancer.
Recognizing the value of effective supportive care measures, cancer programs in LMICs focus on efforts to improve subacute malnutrition, preventing treatment abandonment, implementation of adapted programs such as survivorship or palliative care, community engagement, sensitization and educational activities, political advocacy, and fever management. For example, children with cancer in LMICs are 20-30 times more likely to die from an infection, and this risk increases with moderate (>3 hours) and severely (>24 hours) prolonged delays in treatment. Thus, adaptive efforts to improve sepsis identification and timely fever management in LMICs improve outcomes. Yet, the development and implementation of these supportive care measures can be time intensive and present significant challenges for an oncologist with a high patient volume. To improve dissemination, local uptake, and advancement of effective supportive care in children with cancer living in LMICs, this Frontiers in Oncology Research topic will highlight innovative approaches and adaptive interventions aimed at closing impactful gaps in supportive care measures.
The editorial team strongly recommends first or last authorship by LMIC researchers and encourages clinical research studies using implementation science, quality improvement, mixed methods, clinical trials, or cohort studies. Reviews or commentary which highlight a novel knowledge gap in supportive care may also be considered. Areas to be considered in this Research Series may include, but not limited to:
• Fever and infection management
• Survivorship and late effects
• Pain management and Palliative Care
• Treatment abandonment strategies
• Malnutrition
• Chemotherapy induced nausea/vomiting
• Oncologic emergencies
• Adolescent/Young Adult Programs
• Psychosocial programs
Please note manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases that are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of the scope of this Research Topic.
Over 90% of children in the world diagnosed with cancer live in low or low-middle income countries (LMICs) where the cure rate is under 30% compared to greater than 85% in high-income countries. The health disparities contributing to the poor outcomes in children with cancer living in LMICs is certainly multifactorial, but closely related to supportive care; oncologists must utilize adapted reduced intensity regimens to mitigate the risk of death from infection and treatment related mortality. Supportive care comprises broad, multidisciplinary services to manage the side effects, improve adherence of therapy, and ultimately achieve optimal health outcomes at all stages in the cancer journey. Effective measures to enhance the delivery of supportive care improve survival and decrease the burden of disease in children with cancer.
Recognizing the value of effective supportive care measures, cancer programs in LMICs focus on efforts to improve subacute malnutrition, preventing treatment abandonment, implementation of adapted programs such as survivorship or palliative care, community engagement, sensitization and educational activities, political advocacy, and fever management. For example, children with cancer in LMICs are 20-30 times more likely to die from an infection, and this risk increases with moderate (>3 hours) and severely (>24 hours) prolonged delays in treatment. Thus, adaptive efforts to improve sepsis identification and timely fever management in LMICs improve outcomes. Yet, the development and implementation of these supportive care measures can be time intensive and present significant challenges for an oncologist with a high patient volume. To improve dissemination, local uptake, and advancement of effective supportive care in children with cancer living in LMICs, this Frontiers in Oncology Research topic will highlight innovative approaches and adaptive interventions aimed at closing impactful gaps in supportive care measures.
The editorial team strongly recommends first or last authorship by LMIC researchers and encourages clinical research studies using implementation science, quality improvement, mixed methods, clinical trials, or cohort studies. Reviews or commentary which highlight a novel knowledge gap in supportive care may also be considered. Areas to be considered in this Research Series may include, but not limited to:
• Fever and infection management
• Survivorship and late effects
• Pain management and Palliative Care
• Treatment abandonment strategies
• Malnutrition
• Chemotherapy induced nausea/vomiting
• Oncologic emergencies
• Adolescent/Young Adult Programs
• Psychosocial programs
Please note manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases that are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of the scope of this Research Topic.