• Children in rich countries have up to 70 per cent likelihood of living for at least another five years after the diagnosis.
• The symptoms of acute myeloid leukaemia are often confused with other common ailments such as malaria and anaemia.
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For parents whose children develop acute myeloid leukaemia, the diagnosis can be a brutal journey.
The symptoms are often confused with other common ailments such as malaria and anaemia.
A new report shows, largely because of such delays, most Kenyan children with AML do not live beyond two years after diagnosis.
Children in rich countries have up to 70 per cent likelihood of living for at least another five years after the diagnosis.
The disease, a form of cancer, destroys the body by causing the bone marrow to produce large numbers of abnormal blood cells.
“Survival of Kenyan children with acute myeloid leukaemia is dismal,” medics at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret say in a new report published in the Cancer Reports journal.
The study is titled “Outcomes of paediatric acute myeloid leukaemia treatment in western Kenya.”
They recently examined records of sick children admitted there with AML between 2010 and 2018.
The report shows only seven per cent of Kenyan children lived beyond two years after diagnosis.
The probability of event-free survival–the time after treatment that the patient remains free of certain complications or events is even lower.
While in developed countries, the odds of event-free survival are 60 per cent for the next three to five years, in Kenya it is only four per cent
The medics examined the medical records of 73 patients, aged up to 16 years.
Families of 15 children refused to start treatment after being informed of the grim prognosis and treatment intensity.
Twenty-five died within 42 days of starting treatment, which is referred to as early death.
The early death rate of Kenyan children, calculated at 46 per cent, is remarkably high compared with the rates of about 15-25 per cent reported in other developing countries and below five per cent in rich countries.
Only 18 patients achieved complete remission but cancer returned in 10 of them within 10 months.
Remission refers to the disappearance of all signs of cancer in response to treatment but does not always mean cancer has been cured.
The medics blamed the poor survival on delayed patient diagnosis and treatment delays because families seek medical care only when the child is extremely ill.
“The diagnosis and treatment delays could be attributed to the inability of healthcare workers to recognize AML because it presents symptoms similar to malaria and anaemia,” they say.
For instance, 94.4 per cent of the patients were referred to MTRH from other health facilities and none had received cancer treatment yet.
They recommend Kenya should implement a more extended supportive care regimen and add new treatment regimes available in rich countries.
“Hopefully, this will reduce the number of early deaths, increase the complete remission rate, and lower the relapse rate,” the experts say.
They include Festus Njuguna, Sandra Langat, Gilbert Olbara and Martha Kipng'etich of MTRH.
Others are Romy van Weelderen, Kim Klein, Saskia Mostert, Terry Vik and Gertjan Kaspers from the Emma Children's Hospital, in Amsterdam, Netherland.
Common symptoms associated with AML include fever, easy bruising or bleeding that’s difficult to stop, such as nosebleeds.
Others are night sweats, frequent infections, pain in the bones or joints, poor appetite and swollen lymph nodes.
Treatment involves chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation for those with aggressive diseases.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris