Cancer that preys on young children

Local scientists have zeroed in on one of the most common cancers in children mainly occurring around Lake Victoria and the coastal regions.

Burkitt’s lymphoma, described by clinicians as one of the most drug friendly of all known tumours, is also said to be very aggressive, doubling in size within 24 hours.

Likewise, the tumour, which mainly affects the jaw bone and sometimes the abdomen, recedes as fast as it grows once a patient is put on drugs — chemotherapy — says Dr Peter Wanzala an epidemiologist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, involved in the study.

Tumours of this kind are difficult to treat, but Burkitt’s, named after Denis Burkitt, a surgeon who first described it in 1956 while working in Uganda, responds very well to drugs. However, a patient must remain under observation for a long time.

The cancer is known to affect children from ages one to 15 but can, though rarely, be found in older children.

But, the most intriguing question is why the cases are only almost exclusively found in Western Kenya and the coastal region. It is also endemic in several other countries in what is called the Burkitt’s lymphoma Belt.

In Kenya, Burkitt’s is the second most prevalent childhood cancer after eye tumours.

The study which was launched in 2007 through the International Union Against Children Cancer, under My Child Matters programme, is looking at the reasons why the condition is endemic in these areas.

Theories being investigated include if it has anything to do with malaria, which is also endemic in both areas, the local diets and whether the cancer has any genetic preferences.

“It is a whole range of questions that we are interrogating and soon we shall start analysing the data collected so far,” Dr Wanzala told the Nation during a two-day excursion in Migori and Homa Bay districts last week.

The study team, which is led by Prof Nicholas Abinya, head of oncology at the Aga Khan University Hospital and the principal investigator in this research, has recruited 80 children with the condition and another 80 as a control group.

“Members of the control group are recruited from the immediate neighbourhood of an affected case to compare the circumstances that led to one getting the condition while the other did not,” says Joseph Omach of the My Child Matters- Kemri programme.

The researchers are cautious on drawing conclusions over the geographical tendency of the disease.

“We don’t want to speculate. In a few months, we will have analysed the data and know the facts,” says Dr Wanzala.

The study is also supported by the pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis.

Once the cancer is confirmed, the patient is put under a six week chemotherapy programme and if the treatment is successful, they should be able to go back home within that period, said Dr Wanzala, who is also a dentist.