From Cambodia to Japan: Japan Heart Children’s Medical Center Inter-Asia Paediatric Cancer Treatment Mission
Soryakan, who has just turned one year old and Sachak who is 9 months old, were both admitted to the Japan heart Children’s Medical Center for hepatoblastoma, a type of childhood cancer.
Childhood cancers occur in Cambodia in Japan at around the same rate; 1 in 10,000 births and the causes are almost entirely unpreventable. Hepatoblastoma is a cancer that forms in the liver, which is rare for childhood cancers and it requires both chemotherapy and surgery to remove.
As far as records show, hepatoblastoma surgery had never been performed in Cambodia before Japan Heart established our hospital. The reality was, that this disease was thought of as incurable in Cambodia.
However, since a paediatric surgery team from a Japanese medical university hospital came to Cambodia and performed the first surgery at Japan Heart’s hospital, we have achieved a lot of positive results with this kind of cancer over the last two years.
Former patients who were successfully treated and discharged from Japan Heart Children’s Medical Center
In August of 2020, Soryakan and Sachak were suspected of having hepatoblastoma at a large children’s hospital in the capital of Phnom Penh and were thus referred to Japan Heart.
The treatment of Soryakan and Sachak at Japan Heart Cambodia
In the four months after they were hospitalized, Soryakan and Sachak received chemotherapy treatment from Dr. Mariko Kakazu, a paediatric oncologist. While receiving chemotherapy, the two boys gained strength quickly. Soryakan is now able to point his finger at things he wants and Sachak’s expressions are getting richer and richer, bringing joy to the paediatricians who supported their fights against cancer. In the paediatric ward, which is a busy place, full of both joy and sorrow, the presence of these two little battlers lifted the spirits of many of the medical staff around them.
Why the need to travel to Japan?
Due to immigration restrictions associated with the global Covid-19 pandemic, 14 days isolation is mandatory in Cambodia and it has become impossible for paediatric surgery teams to freely travel to Cambodia as they once did. Japan Heart’s chief advisor, the paediatric surgeon Dr Yoshioka, is the only such surgeon feasibly able to travel for surgeries. He and another doctor based in Cambodia along with Japan Heart nurses were able to treat some patients with hepatoblastoma by themselves. However, it has become increasingly difficult to do the same for Soryakan and Sachak.
In particular, Soryakan’s surgery in considered to be extremely difficult, and it is not possible to be performed within Cambodia currently.
Additionally, as Sachak is an infant, there is a risk of sudden complications which would make surgery and postoperative management difficult in Cambodia where there is a lack of specialists, testing equipment, and equipment for infant surgery management.
Travel to Japan
In late January, the two boys had their last rounds of chemotherapy in Cambodia. However, even at that late stage, their visas for Japan had yet to be approved and there was worry about whether or not they could really go or not. Thanks to the efforts of the Embassy of Japan in Cambodia, their visas were finally approved the day before scheduled travel.
The family members and nurse who accompanied the patient to Japan were all worried about their first overseas trip but expressed hope about the success of the treatment. Six hours before takeoff, they were preparing for the cold Japanese winter by bundling up in the heat of the Cambodian sun.
On the day of departure, the group was sent off by Dr Yoshioka, who had just come out of surgery and many of the hospital staff, heading to the airport with smiling faces.
To be continued.
Japan Heart Cambodia PR Kanan Nakamura