Asim Belgaumi, Member, Department of Global Pediatric Medicine, Director at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn by Giuseppe Troisi, Program Manager at St Jude Global Hub for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, adding:
“This publication importantly highlights the difficulty faced by children with cancer and their families when freedom of access and movement are restricted, and the impact that has on their cancer outcome. This report is from before the 2023 invasion of Gaza and describes that ‘baseline’; the situation now is worse multifold, with no local treatment opportunity for the children who develop cancer.”
Quoting Giuseppe Troisi’s post:
“I’m sharing a new paper I co-authored, just published in BMJ Global Health, on the challenges of access to cancer care for children in Gaza.
This study goes beyond headlines. It documents step by step what happens when a child with cancer needs diagnosis or treatment outside Gaza, and how bureaucratic, political and logistical barriers translate into deadly delays.
What the data show (pre-October 2023):
- A referral system so complex that children often miss appointments and lose treatment slots
- 1 in 4 children with cancer faced permit delays of more than one month
- Nearly 8% died while waiting for permission to leave Gaza for care
These are not abstract numbers. They represent preventable deaths.
Since the war, the situation has deteriorated even further, as the only pediatric oncology department has been destroyed, supply chains have collapsed, and access to referral care has become even more constrained.
Why this matters for reconstruction:
If Gaza’s health system is to be rebuilt, cancer care, especially for children, must be part of the conversation from day one.
Reconstruction cannot focus only on infrastructure; it must address:
- Simplified and predictable referral pathways
- Timely access to diagnostics and treatment
- Protection of medical travel for children
- Sustainable pediatric oncology capacity, not ad-hoc evacuations
For governments, donors, UN agencies and partners engaged in Gaza’s recovery:
- Childhood Cancer care must be treated as an essential, lifesaving service, not a secondary concern.
- Removing administrative and political barriers is as critical as rebuilding hospitals.
- Every delay costs lives.
- Children with cancer cannot wait for stability to return.”
Title: Challenges of access to care for children with cancer living in the Gaza Strip/occupied Palestinian territory in 2022: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Salwa Massad, Mervett Isbeih, Khalid Abu Saman, Margarida Goncalves, Lamia Mahmoud, Nasim Pourghazian, Giuseppe Troisi, Zeena Salman, Sima Jeha, Shannon Barkley, Richard Peeperkorn
You can read the Full Article in BMJ Journals.
More posts featuring Asim Belgaumi.