Tag: blood cancers

Categories : CancerTags :

Nearly 5000 Children are Living with Blood Cancer: The Toll on SA’s Caregivers

On By ModernMedia
Credit: National Cancer Institute

Blood cancer, a term covering several malignant diseases of the bone marrow or blood-forming system, accounts for 33% of all childhood cancers in South Africa. Currently, nearly 5000 children are living with the condition. For parents and caregivers, the emotional and financial strain can be overwhelming, often leaving them struggling to cope.

Ahead of International Childhood Cancer Day, on the 15th of February, Palesa Mokomele, Head of Community Engagement and Communications at DKMS Africa, explains that with the childhood cancer survival rate as low as 20%, a diagnosis is often a devastating blow for families.

“One thousand four hundred South African children are diagnosed with blood cancer annually,” she continues. “While the diagnosis is traumatic for the child, caregivers experience immense psychological distress which can severely impact their quality of life.”

A Mother’s Story

Elizabeth, whose son Ntsako was diagnosed with blood cancer in August 2024, describes the experience as “a bolt of lightning” that turned her world upside down. “I try not to cry in front of my son, even when I feel like I am falling apart. The treatment phase has been brutal. I want to stay strong for him but knowing there’s only so much I can do is heartbreaking.”

Mokomele notes that Elizabeth’s experience is shared by many. “Prolonged treatment, high stress, sleep deprivation, and financial strain take a heavy toll. Many caregivers struggle with anxiety, depression, and burnout, affecting their well-being, family dynamics, and social lives.”

Coping With the Emotional Impact

While every parent handles these challenges differently, there are ways to manage the emotional burden:

·        Fear and anxiety: The unknown can be debilitating. Engaging with doctors and learning about the treatment and outcomes, which, while still stressful, can remove much of the uncertainty. Your child’s care team is not only there for your child but also to help you; enlist their support and lean on them.

·        Denial and anger: In the short term, denial may help you adjust to the reality of your child’s diagnosis, but staying in denial for too long can cause isolation and delay treatment. Once this wears off, it can give way to anger, and without a proper outlet, it may build up inside. This can lead to you misdirecting it toward other loved ones, co-workers, and even doctors. Look for support from other parents who are going through the same process. Communicate your feelings with those close to you and explore ways to help you cope, like exercise, journaling, mindful meditation, or even just giving yourself private time to vent your feelings.

·        Guilt and blame: It is natural to look for someone or something to blame. You may look inward to find something you think you did wrong; maybe you feel you didn’t act soon enough, or you’re angry that you didn’t get to the doctor earlier. Acknowledging these feelings and allowing yourself to process them is important. If these feelings become too overwhelming, seek support from a professional or even from your child’s care team.

·        Sadness and loss: Give yourself the space to acknowledge grief and adapt to your new reality. If these feelings start to impact your ability to function, get support to work through them because they will affect your ability to help your child and other family members cope.

A Life-Saving Solution

More than 500 South African children die from blood cancer annually – a number that can be reduced with early detection and timely intervention.

“Blood cancer patients can often overcome the disease with the help of a stem cell transplant from a suitable donor,” highlights Mokomele. “DKMS provides a second chance at life for more than 22 patients every day, but doctors still struggle to find matches. Registering as a donor takes just five minutes but could save a child’s life and offer some much-needed relief for those caregivers who are doing their best to hold their families together.”

Register at https://www.dkms-africa.org/register-now.

For further information, get in touch with DKMS Africa at 0800 12 10 82.

Categories : Cancer Healthcare Politics and RegulationsTags :

Increasing SA’s Blood Cancer Survival Rate Starts with the State Healthcare System

On By ModernMedia
Credit: National Cancer Institute

While cancer survivors are increasing in countries like the United States, South Africa faces a different reality, with 4000 people dying from blood cancer every year. Dr Sharlene Parasnath, Head of the Department of Clinical Haematology and Stem Cell Transplant Unit at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital and DKMS Africa board member, believes that this discrepancy is largely due to the quality of care provided to patients who rely on the state healthcare system. 

Counting the costs

She explains that South Africa’s state sector relies predominantly on conventional chemotherapy to treat patients as opposed to newer targeted immunotherapies. “These may be accessible to some patients in the private sector and standard care in developed countries but are out of reach for public healthcare due to their unaffordability. Countries that use more targeted therapies not only improve overall survival but also decrease the undesirable adverse effects of cancer treatments. These therapies may be given with chemotherapy or on their own and work by attacking specific genetic mutations in cancer cells. Examples include monoclonal antibodies (MABs) and Bispecific T cell engagers (BiTES), which mimic the immune system to destroy cancer cells. There are also tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) which block the signals that promote cancer cell growth.”

“The prohibitive costs of these treatments are why stem cell transplants are being encouraged in South Africa since they offer those with blood cancers a chance of a cure,” points out Dr Parasnath. “However, this approach comes with challenges. For instance, the state will not pay for a transplant from an unrelated donor, despite two thirds of patients in need of a transplant being unable to find a suitable donor from within their family.”

Fewer nurses, fewer transplants

“Human resource constraints, particularly the shortage of specialist nurses, is another factor hindering more stem cell transplants from being carried out,” she notes. “Currently, there is no formalised training for nurses in haematology in South Africa. So, what tends to happen is that the majority of blood cancer patients end up being cared for either by oncology-trained nurses or registered general nurses with limited practical education and training in the kind of care they require. Important aspects of nursing which can improve patient outcomes include dietary restrictions, visitor guidelines, decreasing bleeding risk, infection control and early detection of potential complications such as graft rejection, graft vs. host disease and veno-occlusive disease that can develop following a stem cell transplant.”

Referring to an article in the South African Medical Journal titled Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in South Africa: Current limitations and future perspectives, Dr Parasnath adds that lack of staff ultimately leads to implicit rationing of healthcare, thereby limiting access to this life-changing medical procedure.

Mental health is health

She stresses that human resource constraints in terms of mental health support is also detrimental to patients with blood cancers. “Unfortunately, this tends to be the case both in the public and private sectors, as one out of three people diagnosed with cancer ends up struggling with a mental health disorder such as anxiety or depression as well, yet  less than 10% of patients are referred to seek help. The South African Society of Psychiatrists has even warned that if left untreated or undiagnosed, this could impact the patient’s ability to function on a daily basis, including undergoing treatment.”

Dr Parasnath emphasises another glaring gap in mental health support. “NGOs offer on-site social workers for hospitalised children with blood cancer, but adults, especially those who are not members of medical aid schemes, often have no options available to them. Not only do they grapple with the emotional toll of their diagnosis and treatment side effects, but this is further complicated by anxieties around their finances and the wellbeing of their children.”

The Cancer Association of South Africa’s (CANSA) Fact Sheet on Cancer and Mental Health highlights that there remains a huge unmet need for mental health in cancer care, calling for more effective clinical integration of relevant services, which must be informed by patient choice and clinical need, and accessible throughout the patient’s whole cancer journey. It also stresses the need for measurement of patient quality of life as a marker of treatment effectiveness.

“The Department of Health must recognise clinical haematology as a discipline in its own right with its own unique needs. For too long, it has had to feed off of the limited oncology budget. But if we are to up the blood cancer survival rate, funding must be provided for necessities such as more modern treatments, unrelated stem cell transplantation and formalised training of nurses,” says Dr Parasnath.

She also urges South Africans to increase the pool of available stem cell donors either by registering themselves or supporting organisations like DKMS Africa which connects patients with potential matches by providing access to a global registry of over 12 million donors. Financial donations directly address two critical needs: funding the registration of new donors and assisting patients facing financial challenges as a result of the transplant process.”

“With focused efforts, South Africa can join the global trend of increasing blood cancer survival rates, offering a brighter future for patients and their families,” concludes Dr Parasnath.

To register visit https://www.dkms-africa.org/register-now or for more information, contact DKMS Africa on 0800 12 10 82.

Categories : Cancer Metabolic DisordersTags :

Metformin Use Linked to Lower Risk of Developing Blood Cancers

On By ModernMedia
Depiction of multiple myeloma. Credit: Scientific Animations

People who use metformin are less likely to develop a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) over time, indicating that the treatment may help prevent the development of certain types of cancers, according to a study published in Blood Advances.

Metformin is a therapy used to treat high blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes that increases the effect of insulin, reduces how much glucose is released from the liver and helps the body absorb glucose. A meta-analysis of previous studies connected the therapy with a reduction in the risk of gastrointestinal, breast, and urologic cancers, while a retrospective study of US veterans found that metformin users have a reduced risk for solid and haematological cancers.

Metformin’s anti-inflammatory properties in focus

“Our team was interested in understanding what other effects we see with commonly prescribed treatments like metformin,” said Anne Stidsholt Roug, MD, PhD, chief physician at Aarhus University Hospital and clinical associate professor at Aalborg University Hospital in Denmark. “The anti-inflammatory effect of metformin interested us, as MPNs are very inflammatory diseases. This is the first study to investigate the association between metformin use and risk of MPN.”

MPNs are a group of diseases that affect how bone marrow produces blood cells, resulting in an overproduction of red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets that can lead to bleeding problems, a greater risk of stroke or heart attack, and organ damage.

Surprisingly strong association

The researchers compared metformin use among patients diagnosed with MPNs and a matched population from the Danish general population between 2010 and 2018. Of the 3816 MPN cases identified from the sample, a total of 268 (7.0%) individuals with MPN had taken metformin as compared to 8.2% (1573 out of 19 080) of the control group of people who had taken metformin but were not diagnosed with MPN. Just 1.1% of MPN cases had taken metformin for more than five years, as compared to 2.0% of controls. The protective effect of metformin was seen in all subtypes of MPN when adjusting for potential confounders.

“We were surprised by the magnitude of the association we saw in the data,” said Daniel Tuyet Kristensen, MD, PhD student, at Aalborg University Hospital and lead author of the study. “We saw the strongest effect in people who had taken metformin for more than five years as compared to those who had taken the treatment for less than a year.” Dr Kristensen added that this makes clinical sense, as MPNs are diseases that develop over a long period of time, like other types of cancer.

The researchers noted that while the protective effect of long-term metformin use was seen in all subtypes of MPN, the study was limited by its registry-based retrospective design. Further, they could not account for risk-modifying lifestyle factors, such as smoking, obesity, and dietary habits.

Dr Roug noted that while the study team were unable to assess exactly why metformin seems to protect against the development of MPN, they hope additional research will be conducted to better understand why this may be. Moving forward, the researchers aim to identify any similar trends with myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukaemia in population-level data for future study.

Source: American Society of Hematology