Abstract
BACKGROUND
Pediatric-cancer cure rates are ~80% in high-income countries (HIC) however, 80% of children with cancer live in low-to-middle income countries (LMIC) where chances for cure are much lower. Pediatric neuro-oncology requires a multi-disciplinary effort challenging to achieve in LMIC. We started a pediatric neuro-oncology teleconference to help improve healthcare disparities for children in Latin America (LA) with brain tumors, herein we summarize our efforts.
METHODS
Utilizing a web-portal provided by cure4kids.org we connect HIC-global-pediatric neuro-oncologists with LA pediatric-subspecialists. Weekly, real-time, 60-minute sessions are held in Spanish. Minutes are sent in Spanish after each meeting to solidify recommendations and education.
RESULTS
In 2013, we started with one country and 6 members. Substantial growth and data acquisition occurred to include 20-countries throughout LA with growing membership, 2015: 44, 2016: 121, and 2017: 199; and participation, median of 17 (range: 9–22) in 2016 to 25 (range: 11–40) in 2017 (p=0.0005). This required more sessions 2015: 13, 2016: 34, 2017: 47. The total number of cases reviewed were, 2015: 22, 2016: 73, 2017: 132; demonstrating 2017 had statistically more cases per session, on average, than 2016 (p=0.0049) and 2015 (p=0.0075).
CONCLUSIONS
The growing size of our program demonstrates a reassuring response by LA. We provide systematic and effective communication among LA providers in their language. We succeeded in connecting LA institutions of differing resources and experience with global-pediatric neuro-oncologists from leading cancer-centers in HIC to help improve the care of children with brain tumors in LA and promote continuing education for their providers.