DUBAI // Parents of young cancer survivors offered hope to others on Monday that all is not lost when doctors confirm a diagnosis of childhood cancer.
Families marked International Childhood Cancer Day by revisiting doctors at Dubai Hospital who had helped their children.
The facility is currently treating 72 children with cancer, with most expected to make a full recovery.
Tiny Sahira Kamboj was just five when leukaemia, a cancer of the blood, and the most common in children, was diagnosed.
A year on doctors are confident she will make a full recovery and hope she will be back in school by April.
Her father Subhash, an engineer who lives in Sharjah with his wife Dimple and son Aryan, 12, considered taking Sahira back home to India for treatment. Doctors in Dubai, however, reassured him of the quality of treatment here.
“When Sahira was diagnosed last May we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “The doctors gave us all the information about the condition and what could be done for her.
“Our friends said we had to go back to India as the perception was that the medical treatment here in the UAE was not good – but that was not the case at all.”
Lengthy discussions with Dr Anjan Madasu and Dr Hani Humad, both specialists in paediatric oncology, put the family’s minds at ease that Sahira was in safe hands.
“After a half-hour discussion, they changed our minds and we decided to stay here,” said Mr Kamboj.
“Sahira is still not aware of what she is going through. We have told her she has some bad germs going through her. She didn’t have any idea how critical her condition was.
“I had heard of leukaemia but I was not aware of how we could get rid of the cancer or the kind of treatment she could have. The more we spoke with doctors the more we were reassured she could recover.”
Sahira’s symptoms were typical of the condition, a high fever and leg pain that was not responding to the usual medication.
She was admitted to Mediclinic Welcare hospital for blood tests, and then Dubai Hospital for a bone marrow check where leukaemia was diagnosed.
“Now she is in very good shape and is already clear. She has completed the hospitalisation phases of her treatment with chemotherapy and we are now treating her at home,” Mr Kamboj said.
“We have had so much support from our friends. Our parents are not here, my son and I were at home a lot while my wife was with Sahira in hospital. Our friends brought us food and looked out for us.”
He said his advice to other parents going through the same thing would be not to get disheartened.
“These things happen, it is just bad luck and a bad phase of life you are gong through. Doctors have made tremendous advancements and are doing an amazing job, so there can be great hope.”
About 90 per cent of young leukaemia patients go on to lead a normal life, free from cancer in adulthood, but doctors said they were treating more cases at Dubai Hospital – between 50-60 each year.
Annually, the hospital receives about 50 new paediatric cancer cases, of which 70 per cent are leukaemia, and the remaining 30 per cent are tumours.
The youngest patient undergoing treatment is a seven-month-old Egyptian expatriate who has brain tumour, with the oldest being 18. The hospital transfers patients to the adult oncology clinics after they turn 18.
Dr Madasu said that currently no direct cause for leukaemia in children had been identified.
“Genetic mutations have been found as a result of infections, pesticides, pollution or lifestyle that result in the forming of cancer,” he said. “About 50 to 60 per cent of the population is believed to carry cancer genes, but the secondary factors cause the cancer to manifest. Some cancer genes are also more prevalent in some families, that can make cancerous tumours more likely in relatives.”
nwebster@thenational.ae
