We have been recently in contact with Dr Ligia Fu. Dr Fu is a paediatric oncologist from the Servicio de Hemato-Oncologia Pediatrica in the Hospital Escuela in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

This center is part of the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology of Central America (AHOPCA) that gathers Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Dominican Republic.

AHOPCA’s mission is to increase the survival of children with cancer in our countries. The vision is that every child with cancer has a chance to survive with dignity. This group meets annually to promote the establishment of common protocols for the management of Childhood Cancer in the Region. These annual events bring together professionals in the field of pediatric cancer that includes hematologists and oncologists, pediatricians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, pathologists, surgeons, and leaders of parent associations and foundations, who promote common protocols and other initiatives .

Dr Ligia Fu is already using metronomic chemotherapy for some of her patients. She has been using for instance the Metro-Mali01 protocol. She is currently trying to set, with the help of Scott Howard, a prospective all oral metronomic protocol for children with advanced or relapsed disease for whom no treatments are available. This regimen will be based on 6MP-cyclophophomide-mtx in combination with ibuprofen.

MGHI will try to help with this very exciting project for central America. More to details coming soon.