Hodgkin Lymphoma in SA Children Adolescents
Dr Jennifer Geel
Project ended 31 March 2019
Dr Jennifer Geel
- Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital / WITS / South African Children’s Cancer Study Group
Title of the project
Hodgkin Lymphoma in South African Children Adolescents from 2000-2010: A first report by the South African Children’s Cancer Study Group.
Project Description
The purpose of this research is to see how many children in South Africa develop Hodgkin Lymphoma, and how many of these children survive. We aim to determine which factors impact on survival in these children. The parameters that will be examined include age, sex, race, stage at diagnosis, HIV status and treatment protocol.
The South African Children’s Cancer Study Group will consider the results of the study and make recommendations for its member units in terms of improvements, with the aim of increasing survival rates of children with Hodgkin Lymphoma in South Africa. We intend to bring Hodgkin Lymphoma survival rates closer to the higher survival rates shown in other countries. We would like to establish guidelines for the ideal treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma in a South African setting. The aims of this study coincide with those of the South African Children’s Study Cancer Group, namely to increase early detection of childhood cancer and optimise management.
In high-income countries it has become standard to do a PET-CT to decide what stage disease a patient has and how they have responded after two cycles of treatment. PET-CT currently costs between R20 000 to R30 000 and is unavailable in certain centres. A treatment regimen ABVD has been agreed upon: it consists of chemotherapy which is available in all South African centres and can be given on an out-patient basis and has relatively few side effects.
We aim to compare the results from a battery of affordable, widely available blood tests with the results from a PET-CT before and after two cycles of chemotherapy to determine if we can get the same information from the cheaper blood tests. If this is the case, it will be possible to recommend that clinicians in low and middle-income settings perform the cheaper battery of blood tests rather than finding funds for PET-CT scans.
The second part of the project:
Title: The feasibility of introducing a harmonised treatment regimen, comparing affordable blood tests and PET CT scans, to improve two-year survival rates in children, adolescents and young adults with Hodgkin lymphoma in South Africa
Abstract: The impact of HIV infection on overall survival in children with Hodgkin Lymphoma in South Africa
