The Battle Against Childhood Cancer:

Finding A Ray of Hope

26 SEPTEMBER 2023
14:30 - 15:30
CONFERENCE ROOM 2

#CancerCare4All
 GC67 Side Event
The Battle Against Childhood Cancer: Finding A Ray of Hope
26 September 2023, 14:30-15:30
Conference Room CR2
The management of childhood cancers is a success story. Five-year survival rates of most
childhood cancers have increased to higher than 80 percent in high-income countries. Yet in
low- and middle-income countries where most of the world’s children live, survival rates are
equal to or less than 30 percent. Radiation medicine in particular plays an important role in the
diagnosis, treatment, and supportive care of childhood cancers. The use of radiation, however,
requires specialized staff and settings to improve survival and reduce side effects. As such, this
side event will focus on the multidisciplinary management of childhood cancers and on global
challenges. Its objectives will be to examine:
• How radiation and nutrition contribute to the diagnosis, treatment, and supportive care of
childhood cancer patients.
• How the UN agencies and other international organizations are closing the gap between
high-income and low- and middle-income countries.

Agenda
Moderator: Yavuz Anacak
Time Topic Participant
14:30-14:35 Opening remarks Najat Mokhtar, Deputy Director General and Head of
the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications
Shaukat Abdulrazak, Director of the Division for
Africa, Department of Technical Cooperation
14:35-14:40 Perspective of a Sidney Chahonyo, Childhood cancer survivor, Exe-
childhood cancer cutive Director of the Hope for Cancer Kids (HCK)
survivor
14:40-14:55 Radiation and nutri- Diana Paez, Head of Nuclear Medicine and Diagno-
tion in the manage- stic Imaging Section
ment of childhood Yavuz Anacak, Applied Radiation Biology and Ra-
cancers diotherapy Section
Mauro Carrara, Head of Dosimetry and Medical
Radiation Physics Section
Alexia Alford, Nutritional and Health-related Environ-
mental Studies Section
14:55-15:25 Closing the gap in Roberta Ortiz, Lead of the WHO Global Initiative for
childhood cancer Childhood Cancer
globally Natia Esiashvili, President of the Paediatric Radia-
tion Oncology Society (PROS)
Claudio Granata, Chair of the EuroSafe Imaging
Working Group on Paediatric Imaging of ESR
Lisbeth Cordero, Acting Head of Applied Radiation
Biology and Radiotherapy Section
Igor Veljkovikj, Cancer Control Review and Planning
Section
15:25-15:30 Closing remarks May Abdel-Wahab, Director of the Division of
Human Health