Episode Details

Childhood cancer is one of the most treatable cancers — in wealthy countries, more than 80% of children survive. Yet in much of the world, a child's chances depend not on the disease but on where they are born. In parts of Nigeria, a child with cancer may have only a 30% chance of survival. So what stands between children and the survival we know is possible? What does it take to deliver quality cancer care in a fragile setting? And how can access be widened beyond the medicines themselves? In this episode, host Garry Aslanyan explores these questions with two guests who bring deeply complementary perspectives. Dr Khaled Ghanem is a pediatric oncologist and medical director of the largest pediatric oncology unit in Syria, run in partnership with the NGO BASMA, which has sustained care and achieved a 76% survival rate, through years of war, earthquakes, and a pandemic. And joining him is Dr Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, a pediatrician, founder of the Medicaid Cancer Foundation in Nigeria, and president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control, who works to bring earlier diagnosis and affordable care to children and families across northern Nigeria.

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