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Read the full report (May '08)

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"Eye Cancer" is two words, and should never be a sentence.

The Need      Raising Awareness      Global Rb Strategy      Rati's Challenge          Hope for Africa          Kenyan Rb Strategy          Guidelines           National Registry           Awareness Raising           Co-ordinated Care           Child Life Support           Family Support           Artificial Eye Service      Retinoblastoma Book     World Rb Citizen Award

Aged just 11 months, Rati’s cancer-filled left eye was removed in her home country of Botswana.  Doctors believed the surgery had cured her.  However, delayed diagnosis, incomplete treatment and lack of follow-up led to a recurrence in the eye socket 19 months later, which her doctors could not treat due to lack of training and treatment facilities.

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With support from around the world, Rati was able to receive expert care at Toronto’s SickKids Hospital, giving her the best chance of a cure.  However, this support came too late for her, and she died in August 2006, aged 4 years.  Had Rati received proper care when she was first seen by doctors at 5 months old, she would be alive and well today.  Rati set us the challenge of improving care for children in Africa so that, one day, no child would have to face death because of late diagnosis or inappropriate care. Retinoblastoma in Africa 2,000 children develop retinoblastoma each year across Africa, a continent largely outside the global oncology community.  In comparison, each year there are approximately 280 new retinoblastoma cases in the USA, 45 in the UK and 24 in Canada.  Survival is estimated to be less than 10% in Africa, compared with 97% survival in England, Canada and the USA. The majority of children in Africa are diagnosed at an advanced stage, and many children may die before diagnosis.  Most advanced and fatal cases are observed in rural, underprivileged communities.   Death is due to late diagnosis when retinoblastoma has spread into the brain and/or bone marrow; sub-optimal application of resources due to delayed and incomplete pathology reports; inadequate resources to support family care when the burdens of treatment force abandonment of therapy. Death from delayed diagnosis of retinoblastoma is almost unheard-of in developed countries, where the main focus of treatment is preserving vision.  The high cure rate achieved in resource-rich countries can be equally achieved in Africa by building local capacity for improved diagnosis and management of retinoblastoma, and better support for families. Achieving Global Goals Our Model National Retinoblastoma Strategy for Developing Countries supports a number of United Nations Millennium Development Goals, such as access to health care and education.  Many goals set out in the Charter of Paris will also be realised through this project.  The Charter, adopted at the 2000 World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium, recognises that: “Currently achievable improvements in cancer survival remain unrealized, due to…unequal access to quality cancer care.” “Lives can and will be saved by increased access to existing technologies.”  “Clinical outcomes can be affected by the overall state of a patient's mental and physical well being, so the preservation of quality of life -- including physical, psychological and social functioning -- should be a humanitarian priority.”

Rati's Challenge: Hope for Africa Read the full report (May '08)

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Rati's Challenge          Kenyan Rb Strategy          Guidelines           National Registry          Awareness Raising          Co-ordinated Care           Child Life Support          Family Support          Artificial Eye Service

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