Children with cancer get new building in QC

MANILA, Philippines - A new building is set to rise in Quezon City that will house children stricken in cancer.

The six-story building, to be known as the Pediatric Cancer Center, will have a 100-bed capacity and will be the newest structure inside the compound of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) on Quezon Avenue in Quezon City.

However, due to limited funds, only the first three floors of the building are set to be finished by the middle of this year with a capacity of 50 beds. It will almost double PCMC’s present capacity of 30 beds in its existing cancer ward. 

Vice President Jejomar Binay recently led the groundbreaking ceremonies for the new building. He vowed to be an advocate of pediatric cancer and engage both the public and private sector in battling this menace. 

“Cancer does not choose its victim; you may get it whether you are rich or poor.  The only difference is, if the poor gets the disease, more often than not, it doesn’t get treated,” Binay said in Filipino.

“We should help these children. We should give them the chance to live a full life. Together we can do more. Magtulong-tulong po tayo para labanan ang kanser sa kabataan (Let us help each other in the fight against pediatric cancer),” he said.

PCMC executive director Dr. Julius Lecciones said the Department of Health (DOH) has designated the PCMC to be one of the implementers of the government’s National Center for Pharmaceutical Access and Management (NCPAM) program, which provides free chemotherapy drugs to indigent patients.

My Child Matters Program

 In the last five year, Lecciones said the PCMC, together with the Philippine Society of Pediatric Oncology (PSPO), has been successful in bringing pediatric cancer in the limelight through the hospital’s My Child Matters Program.

Under this program, the PCMC was able to educate and train health personnel on the grassroots level to recognize cancer and channel immediate referrals to physicians in order to diagnose the disease early and give appropriate treatment.

 Among the institutions that are helping the PCMC is the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and pharmaceutical company Sanofi. They have been very active in funding the My Child Matters Program, which PCMC and PSPO have brought to key cities of the country.

Sanofi, through the company’s foundation Sanofi Espoir, recently turned over its donation of €15,000 for the initiative.

Every year, an estimated 3,500 Filipino children get stricken with cancer but only 2,500 of them get to be diagnosed. Of this number, Lecciones said only about 60 percent receive adequate treatment.

The baseline survival rate of childhood leukemia (the most common type of childhood cancer) is 16 percent. With the MCM Program and the current availability of the DOH NCPAM’s free chemotherapy drug for indigents, PCMC’s current two-year survival rate is 70 percent (seven out of 10 patients), and a five-year survival rate of 50 percent (five of 10 patients).

The ultimate goal is to achieve at least 80 percent cure rate as is the case in advanced countries. With multi-sectoral cooperation, together this is possible.

The PCMC, as the national end-referral center for childhood cancer, is helping out the manpower training of the health care professionals caring for pediatric cancer patients for all the 13 identified satellite hospitals in five regional catchment areas all over the country, and provided technical advice to them in setting up their pediatric oncology regional referral units. 

“The battle against pediatric cancer is huge. We need the support of everyone — from government agencies, to private companies, down to families and individuals,” said Lecciones.