Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and the Indiana University School of Medicine have been awarded a prestigious grant from the National Cancer Institute totalling $2.5 million over a five-year period to increase critical leukaemia and lymphoma testing access in Western Kenya.
Led by Indiana University School of Medicine’s Dr Terry Vik, Project Director and Principal Investigator (pictured), collaborators include the AMPATH Reference Laboratory, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, University of Missouri, and the Burkitt’s Lymphoma Fund for Africa.
The grant will expand work underway since 2018 in Western Kenya to adapt flow cytometry methods for early detection of paediatric haematologic malignancies, including sample workflow processes and training of personnel. The team has partnered with the Burkitt’s Lymphoma Fund for Africa since beginning the initiative to greatly reduce the alarming prevalence of haematological malignancies, particularly in children, through expanding access to testing. If diagnosed early, most of these paediatric malignancies are curable.
Through the Kenya team’s tireless work to expand testing and education, leukaemia and lymphoma mortality has improved by up to 50% since the partnership began, which has fuelled demand for more testing.
“When we learned how severely deprived of critical resources Africa was in this workflow for something easily diagnosable and treatable, we knew we could make a positive impact,” said Tony Boova, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences Principal Medical and Scientific Affairs. “We quickly established a collaboration that provided resources to increase testing through flow cytometry automation. Six years after the journey began, it is gratifying to contribute as an industry partner with Dr Vik and the Indiana University School of Medicine and to know we will be able to ramp up efforts to save lives through increased testing in other African countries.”
"While survival rates and treatment options are strong, if you can't make a diagnosis, the child has no chance,” said Dr Terry Vik at the Indiana University School of Medicine. “That's why we have focused on getting an accurate diagnosis as quickly as possible. What I witnessed in Kenya the last six years is that awareness of childhood cancer has increased remarkably. We've tripled the number diagnoses annually and improved survival by offering curative therapy in many of the common paediatric cancers we see. It is an honour to continue empowering these laboratories to expand their life-saving work."
The grant will enable healthcare providers in Western Kenya to increase staffing and supplies to bolster testing capacity and reduce turnaround time, leading to improved quality of life. The grant will also support clinical studies that compare early access screening with sub-classifications of leukaemias and lymphomas using patient bone marrow aspirates and peripheral blood for a less invasive sampling method. The study supported by the RO1 NIH Grant will enrol 500 patients to participate and provide 3,000 flow cytometry assays.