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Management of childhood cancer in low income countries

We established a long-standing and highly successful treatment programme in Uganda, for the childhood cancer, retinoblastoma. It has become a model for the management of certain childhood cancers in low income settings.

This programme is being adopted by other centres on the continent.

In 2021 we published a 10-year follow up of the largest clinical cohort of childhood cancer in Africa. It highlights sustained improvements in survival, showing that we are delivering work of clear clinical and policy impact for the region:

Waddell K, Matua M, Bidwell C, et al. A ten-year study of Retinoblastoma in Uganda: An approach to improving outcome with limited resources. Cancer Epidemiology. 2021

New Childhood Cancer Ward

Children with retinoblastoma gathered outside their new ward in Uganda

In spring of 2023 we opened our new childhood cancer ward in Mbarara in southwestern Uganda. All of the children pictured have retinoblastoma and are in our treatment programme.

Creating the ward took twenty years, including ten years of fund raising. It is called the Keith Waddell Ward in honour of the man who drove so much of this work.