In efforts to strengthen the health system response to childhood cancer, the Pan American Health Organization, together with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are collaborating with the Ministries of Health, pediatric oncologists, and foundations to develop National Childhood Cancer Plans, in alignment with the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) of the World Health Organization.
The GICC aims to reduce the suffering of children with cancer and achieve at least a 60% survival rate by 2030.
Childhood cancer in the Americas
Worldwide, each year about 280,000 children and adolescents (0-19 years) are diagnosed with cancer. In Latin America and the Caribbean, at least 29,000 new cases of cancer are estimated in 2020 among children and adolescents.
Although childhood cancer usually cannot be prevented, early diagnosis can lead to a higher chance of survival.
Unfortunately, not all countries have timely diagnosis or high-quality treatment, which has generated huge inequities in childhood cancer.
In some low- and middle-income countries, only about 20% of children with cancer survive. By contrast, around 80% of children with cancer living in high-income countries will survive.
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National Childhood Cancer Plans in the region of the Americas
The following section presents a summary of the national plans related to childhood cancer, and the links to the key documents.
It will be udpated as more national childhood cancer plans become available
Plan Nacional de Cáncer 2018-2022
Type: National Cancer Plan (with pediatric component)
Period: 2019-2022
General purpose
- Contribute to the decrease in the incidence and morbidity and mortality from cancer in Argentina.
Specific objectives
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Promote a model of comprehensive and continuous care of the population with regard to tumor diseases that includes prevention, cancer treatment and palliative care.
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Develop a strategy for training human resources at all levels of care in order to improve the quality of care for people in terms of prevention, detection, diagnosis and comprehensive treatment of cancer.
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Provide the means and the legal framework for the epidemiological surveillance of cancer, its risk factors and determinants.
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Promote the signing of agreements, at the national or international level with governmental or private entities, for the development of tasks related to cancer control.
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Advise the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Nation in the aspects related to the matter, tending to a rational distribution of the necessary resources for the prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of neoplastic diseases, as well as the rehabilitation of afflicted patients. for the disease.
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Promote, support and coordinate cancer research projects carried out by universities, hospitals, research foundations and companies in the Argentine Republic, through grants and cooperation agreements.
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Support the education and training of researchers in all areas related to the study of cancer.
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Promote the articulation of the work of healthcare, academic or research institutions dedicated to cancer.
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Agree with the provincial health authorities and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the application in their respective areas, of programs and actions in accordance with the purposes of this law and the objectives determined in the Federal Health Plan.
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Carry out active and culturally appropriate communication about cancer, disseminating and informing society about the importance of cancer, its prevention, early diagnosis and treatment.
Plan Nacional de Cáncer 2018-2028
Type: National Cancer Plan (with pediatric component)
Period: 2018-2028
General purpose
- Reduce the incidence and morbidity and mortality attributable to cancer through strategies and actions that facilitate the promotion, prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, palliative care and follow-up of people, improving the survival of people with cancer, favoring their quality of life and of their families and communities.
Specific objectives
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Raise awareness of the importance of cancer and the role of civil society in its prevention and treatment.
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Strengthen healthy lifestyles in the population, to enhance their self-care through health education, promotion of protective factors and prevention of risk factors associated with cancer through innovative, intra- and intersectoral strategies.
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Encourage the generation of environments that allow the population to enjoy better health, providing them with information regarding protection factors and avoiding their exposure to environmental elements that have been identified as risk factors for cancer.
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Improve immunization coverage as cancer prevention strategies in the population.
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Improve screening coverage, as well as timeliness and quality of diagnostic confirmation and articulation with the relevant referral center.
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Tend to a comprehensive, timely and quality care in the context of treatment, according to the best available scientific evidence.
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Guarantee timely access and comprehensive palliative care care to people and their support network, in accordance with Law No. 19,966, which establishes a Regime of Explicit Health Guarantees.
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Provide support to patients and their families throughout the cycle of their disease and initiatives that integrate the environment of the patient to their treatment and monitoring of the disease.
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Improve network management, especially to comply with explicit health guarantees (GES) in cancer, without neglecting those conditions not currently covered by GES.
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Strengthen the human resource in training and the amount necessary for its future planning to have the qualified interdisciplinary human team required by the National Oncology Network.
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Strengthen the National Oncology Network in aspects of infrastructure and equipment, to ensure access to quality and timely services for all people with cancer who reside in the national territory, with comprehensive resolution of most of the people in the region in which they live.
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Strengthen the systems for the registration, information and epidemiological surveillance of cancer, in order to facilitate the generation, quality and access to information, in order to support decision-making in public health.
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Promote research in various disciplines related to the field of health, in particular in topics related to cancer, so that research is an input that allows reducing the impact of cancer on the population.
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Urge for consistent, permanent and incremental financing, according to the needs detected for the progression and development of the National Cancer Plan.
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Strengthen stewardship, regulation, and oversight, ensuring the quality of the clinical processes established for the diagnosis and treatment of people with cancer, as well as ensuring the technical aspects and the operation of the teams, which allow ensuring the quality of the care provided to the users.
PLAN DECENAL PARA EL CONTROL EN COLOMBIA, 2012-2021
Type: National Cancer Plan (with pediatric component)
Period: 2012-2022
Objectives
1. Reduce the prevalence of modifiable risk factors for cancer.
2. Reduce preventable cancer deaths by improving early detection and quality of care.
3. Improve the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors.
4. Guarantee the generation, availability and use of knowledge and information for decision making.
5. Strengthen the management of human talent for cancer control.
National Strategic Plan for Childhood Cancer 2021-2025
General objective:
- The plan will be applied at the national, regional, provincial and municipal levels and includes the strategies to be implemented throughout the National Health System, under the leadership of the Ministry of Public Health.
Specific objectives:
- Position and integrate the topic of childhood cancer in the legislative, economic and development agendas, through national and intersectoral strategies.
- Expand coverage, equitable access and improve the quality of care for patients with childhood cancer in health services, based on the model of primary health care and self-care.
- Reduce the prevalence of risk factors with emphasis on children and adolescents, through the implementation of strategies for health promotion, education, early detection and access to timely treatment.
- Create a comprehensive support program for the families of cancer patients, where patients have access to pain management drugs (opiates) and access to timely comprehensive palliative support with all integral components.
- Create a national cancer registry that includes the childhood cancer registry.
- Develop research related to childhood cancer, its risk factors and determinants, which allows the results to be used for decision-making and the development of policies and programs.
National Strategic Plan for Cancer Prevention and Control, 2019 – 2029
General objectives:
- Reduce cancer morbidity and mortality in the Panamanian population.
- Improve the quality of life of people affected by cancer.
Specific objectives focus on the following topics:
- Promotion and prevention
- Inform the population about the warning signs for the main cancers with the highest prevalence.
- Educate about risk factors related to cancer.
- Encourage intersectoral participation to impact on living conditions through the approach of social determinants.
- Promote healthy lifestyles, through promotion and intersectoral work, self-care and primary prevention.
- Increase vaccination coverage for Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
- Screening and early diagnosis
- Improve the response capacity of the health services network.
- Promote screening with recommended tests based on evidence and early and timely diagnosis in the population at risk.
- Decentralize the diagnosis, according to scientific evidence, without impairing the quality of the diagnosis.
- Treatment
- Manage the availability and access to medicines, supplies and trained personnel for the treatment of cancer patients.
- Promote multidisciplinary management that allows the coordination of the different treatment modalities, for the benefit of patients.
- Decentralization of treatment, maintaining the quality of care.
- Improve the patient's experience in the use of health services, reducing attention times, as well as promoting quality human care from professionals and health facilities for patients.
- Palliative care
- Contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of patients with diseases that limit their life and their families, in a rational, planned, efficient way and whenever possible based on evidence, guaranteeing palliative care according to the guiding principles of the National Health System.
- Facilitate models that allow interdisciplinary work for a comprehensive approach to the person with advanced disease and their family.
- Expand the coverage of palliative care according to the level of complexity, in accordance with the care modalities established in the National Palliative Care Program.
- Training and qualification
- Have trained human resources, at the three levels of care, to improve strategies for promotion, prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, palliative care and follow-up of survivors.
- Coordinate with the training faculties of human resources in health, the incorporation of the integral management of cancer in the country.
- Manage continuing education programs for health personnel working at different levels of care.
- To train specialized human resources in the different modalities related to oncology.
- Carry out the diagnosis of the supply and demand of human resources for the treatment of cancer in the country.
- Information systems
- Improve the National Population Cancer Registry.
- Quality of life and follow-up of survivors
- Provide comprehensive care to all patients diagnosed with cancer, as well as to their families so that they receive adequate treatment for the disease and its sequelae, from diagnosis to rehabilitation or death.
- Decentralize gradually and progressively the long-term follow-up of cancer patients.
- Research
- Develop international cooperation programs for cancer research o Develop in coordination with SENACYT lines of cancer research. o Promote operational research and evaluation of the effectiveness of health services, as well as preventive activities.
- Cancer in children
- Provide comprehensive and multidisciplinary care to children and adolescents with cancer, from their diagnosis, which allows them to continue with their development and education.
- Have differentiated information on the different types of tumors in children.
- Manage quality drugs and supplies on a continuous and timely basis.
National plan for the comprehensive approach to cancer in childhood and adolescence, 2021 – 2025
General objective:
- Establish interventions for the comprehensive approach to cancer in childhood and adolescence including palliative management, improving quality of life, reducing morbidity and mortality through health promotion, prevention, detection and early diagnosis, timely treatment, rehabilitation and research.
Specific objectives:
- Boost health promotion for the adoption of healthy lifestyles in the family and activities that enhance protection factors and promote the reduction of risk factors in the generation of cancer.
- Develop and integrate interventions for early detection of cancer in childhood and adolescence carried out in the National Integrated Health System.
- Strengthen the institutional capacities of the National Integrated Health System for early diagnosis, timely treatment, support therapy, rehabilitation and palliative care of oncological pathology in childhood and adolescence at the different levels of the comprehensive and integrated Health Networks, in an equitable and sustainable way.
- Strengthen the institutional capacities in the National Integrated Health System, to implement and unify the "Population-Based Registry of Pediatric Cancer to the National Cancer Registry" for permanent surveillance in the country.
- Promote the development of the human talent required for the comprehensive care of patients with cancer in childhood and adolescence.
- Promote the development of research with an emphasis on social and biological determinants, health promotion, identification of risk factors and mechanisms for the prevention of cancer in childhood and adolescence.
- Promote the establishment of financial mechanisms that guarantee the economic sustainability of the comprehensive approach to cancer in childhood and adolescence.
Plan Nacional de Cuidados Integrales del Cáncer (2020-2024)
Type: National Cancer Plan (with pediatric component)
Period: 2020-2024
General purpose
- Increase access to comprehensive cancer care, through strategic actions with intercultural adaptation, health promotion, primary prevention, secondary prevention, early diagnosis, timely treatment, including palliative care from the first level of care, emphasizing the supervision, monitoring and comprehensive evaluation of the goals.
Specific objectives
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Reduce the prevalence of cancer risk factors in the population.
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Increase the operational capacity and quality of health services for comprehensive cancer care.
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Improve the availability of medical supplies and technologies for comprehensive cancer care.
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Develop the comprehensive cancer care model for the life course between IPRESS.
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Strengthen deconcentrated and decentralized oncology services for timely care in comprehensive cancer care.
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Develop and integrate information systems for comprehensive cancer care.
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Develop clinical and public health research to improve decision-making in comprehensive cancer care.
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Increase human resources and strengthen skills for comprehensive cancer care.
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Increase financial protection for comprehensive cancer care.
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