Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Children’s Hospital Boston and Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 Host International Fellowship Signing Ceremony in Boston

Tag Archives: survival rates

For Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Blog on this Partnership, click here.

Representatives from Children’s Hospital Boston (BCH), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 (CCHE) met last Friday, September 21st, at the Signing Ceremony for the Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center and Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357’s Pediatric Oncology Fellowship. The ceremony was attended by numerous dignitaries from the aforementioned institutions, including the presidents of both BCH and DFCI, as well as Dr. Hany Hussein, the President of the Children’s Cancer Hospital 57357 Foundation (CCHF) and Dr. Sherif Abouelnaga, the VP of Academic Affairs, Research and Outreach at CCHE. Also in attendance were many board members of supporters of the fellowship project, which took over two years of commitment.

BCH, DFCI and CCHE have partnered together to develop this highly-customized joint fellowship program, the first of its kind. The program is designed to teach its fellows the essentials of patient care, performing research in oncology through collaboration with faculty members and mentors while also strengthening the relationship between the American and Egyptian pediatric oncology communities.

The fellowship is designed to improve the pediatric oncology survival rates and outcomes within Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), while simultaneously allowing for a mutual exchange of information, knowledge and experience for both doctors from the region and also from the United States. Participating fellows will have the opportunity to transcend geographic and cultural borders in an effort to learn about pediatric oncology treatment in the MENA region as compared with treatment in the United States, therefore improving their practices through exposure to a multitude of cases and situations which may not be present in their home countries.

By providing a sound education for our global physicians, especially those who treat children and diligent search for a cure for cancer, we are indeed creating a solution to a plethora of problems and ultimately saving lives of children who need their expertise. The creation of this fellowship program between the aforementioned, prestigious international medical institutions is a testimony to the power of cooperation which is essential to world peace and harmony between cultures, and proof that, despite politics, shared goals in healthcare for humanity can unite people everywhere.

 

 

CCHE will be taking part in the upcoming 25th annual meeting of the European Musculoskeletal Oncology Society, to be held in Bologna, Italy from May 15-16, 2012. They will be presenting two highly complex posters to represent abstracts of two major research findings related to bone tumors. The first of these is titled “Outcome and Prognostic Factors for non-Metastatic Osteosarcoma of the Extremity: The CCHE Experience” and is led by Dr. Manal Zamzam and Dr. Emad Moussa, who will be presenting their research about this particular type of localized bone tumor from a study conducted between 2007-2011. The study was carried out with highly specialized, cohesive research work teams. The study determined that overall survival rates were 87%, event-free survival rates were 70.5%, and limb salvage incidence rates were 82%. The abstract also looks into various prognostic factors, including a comparison of findings according to age, gender, tumor volume, response to chemotherapy, and bio-markers.

The presentation of these findings will reveal the effectiveness of current treatment methods and protocols, and will also statistically prove the direct correlation between age, tumor volume, level of alkaline phosphatase and the recurrence of the disease. Chances of recurrence, large tumor volume and high rates of alkaline phosphatase in the liver are less in younger patients.

The second of these two abstracts to be presented is titled “Retrospective Assessment of the Change in Intra-osseous Involvement in Ewing Sarcoma of Long Bones After Neo-Adjuvant Chemotherapy, it’s Impact on Surgical Planning and Local Control” and is led by Dr. Ahmed El Ghoneimy, a consultant in orthopedic oncology. Results of the study have proven that chemotherapy does not affect the longitude of Ewing sarcoma tumors in long bones and there “are no significant changes in the intra-osseous extent of the tumor before surgery”, despite the fact that chemotherapy is nearly always used as a pre-surgical removal treatment. The study also determined that doctors can rely on the pre-operative MRI’s given to patients with these kind of tumors to calculate safety margins prior to tumor removal.

We wish CCHE staff the best of luck at the meeting and congratulate them on their scientific achievements.