Dr. Cyprien SHYIRAMBERE, a Pediatrician in Rwanda’s Butaro District Hospital has earned the Award for Best Poster Presentation during the 46th Congress of The International Society of Pediatrician Oncology that ended today in Toronto, Canada.
The Annual SIOP (French acronym for “Société Internationale d’Oncologie Pédiatrique”) Meeting held between 22 and 25th October 2014 is the only truly international scientific and educational meeting in the area of Pediatric Oncology held in the world. It reflects the intimate international structure of SIOP, providing high quality opportunities and a comprehensive view of the latest news in the entire field of childhood cancer within a three day period.
The Toronto meeting brought something innovative “Young Investigator Awards”, a prize initiated by the SIOP Scientific Meeting. More than 1300 abstracts were submitted for SIOP 2014 and Dr. Cyprien’s abstract was selected among the Awards winners. Ten awards were given out to the best scientific research submitted by young investigators for SIOP 2014.
Dr. Cyprien presented a poster on the “Preliminary Treatment Outcomes Utilizing SIOP Guidelines in a Novel Oncological Care Model for Wilms’ Tumor in Rwanda; as part of an assessment done in cancer patients who were treated in Rwanda’s most advanced cancer care center located in rural Butaro Hospital.
Cancer, along with other non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease, are said to be ‘diseases of development,’ and seem to be increasing just as fast as Rwanda is developing. An “Analysis of Facility-based Cancer Registries in Rwanda from 2007 to 2013 revealed a total of 5,430 cancer cases registered in Rwanda among which 360 were in children ages 15 and younger.
Apart from Butaro Hospital, cancer services in Rwanda are also found at CHUK, CHUB, KFH, KMH, Rwinkwavu hospitals. Cancer is an emerging public health problem in Africa, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), cites about 715,000 new cancer cases and 542,000 cancer deaths occurred in 2008 on the continent.
The figures have potentially increased because of the adoption of behaviors and lifestyles associated with economic development, such as smoking, unhealthy diets, and physical inactivity but also simply due to the aging and growth of the population.
The SIOP Annual meeting has been an important platform where medical experts, researchers, and scientists convened to share experiences and lessons based on the most up to date research in pediatric oncology. The next meeting will take place next year in South Africa.
By Dr. Gilbert Biraro
Kigalihe.com
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