Childhood cancer remains a major challenge in low-resource settings, where limited infrastructure, delayed diagnosis and insufficient supportive care contribute to high mortality rates. In Burundi, paediatric oncology services are still developing, and access to comprehensive supportive care remains limited.
This abstract presents the current situation of supportive care for children with cancer at the University Hospital Roi Khaled de Kamenge (CHUK) in Bujumbura, Burundi. It highlights the main challenges faced by healthcare professionals, including late presentation of patients, limited access to essential medicines, inadequate pain management and lack of specialised psychosocial support.
Despite these constraints, local efforts are being made to improve the quality of care through multidisciplinary collaboration, staff training and the progressive implementation of basic supportive care protocols. The experience at CHUK demonstrates that meaningful improvements can be achieved even in resource-limited environments when knowledge, commitment and international collaboration are combined.
Participation in the COSA 53rd Annual Scientific Meeting will provide an essential opportunity to learn from international best practices in supportive care and multidisciplinary management. The knowledge gained will be directly applied to strengthen paediatric cancer care at CHUK and to contribute to better outcomes for children with cancer in Burundi.
This work underlines the importance of global collaboration to reduce disparities in childhood cancer survival between high-income and low-resource countries.