Hi there! For the coming weeks, our blog will be dedicated to our Young SIOP Award winners!
Please meet Hellen Mugarra Kabahweza, YI from Uganda, in their own words.
My name is Hellen Mugarra Kabahweza, a public health specialist and research coordinator from Uganda. I work at the Joint Clinical Research Centre, Global-Hope’s Uganda site of paediatric hematology-oncology, based at the Mulago national specialized hospital. I am a registered nurse with a bachelor's degree in health services management (2012), masters’ degrees in monitoring and evaluation (2017) and public health from the University of Manchester (2022).
My research interests are in strengthening health systems, and, more lately, providing psychosocial support to children with cancer. I have taken part in a variety of initiatives, primarily to support patients with cancer, their families and caregivers. This has mostly been done alongside the provision of counselling services, bereavement support, securing funding for patient transportation, clothing, supportive care, and nutritional support. Due to the lengthy nature of treatment, this support has decreased the caregivers' workload and enhanced the retention of children in care. An abstract describing these efforts was approved for presentation at the SIOP 2023 Congress.
My other research was a systematic review to assess the efficacy of chemotherapy alone in managing children with Hodgkin lymphoma in SSA. Using the random effects model, the pooled estimate for overall survival in that population was 67.8 % (95% CI: 42.1-88.8%), mortality was 30.8 % (95% CI: 12.9-52.3%), and treatment-related deaths were 8.2 % (95% CI: 1.4-19.7). These results suggest that chemotherapy alone may be sufficient for treating children with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma however, more studies with adequate power are required to ascertain this. An abstract on this has been submitted for possible publication and has been accepted for presentation at the SIOP 2023 Congress.
I have been privileged to be awarded the Young SIOP Investigator Award 2023, and I'm excited to present those presentations in Canada this year.
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