The meeting was suggested by SIOP, organized and sponsored by AMCC (Karim Assani and Laurence Desjardins), Saint Judes (Susan Ybarra and Matt Wilson, with Nickhill Bhakta and Jacques Van Heerden also in attendance).

The visit by the ophthalmologists was also sponsored by the Eye Cancer Foundation.

The participation of ophthalmologists was remarkable, with English-, French-, and Portuguese-speaking teams (Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Niger, Cameroon, and Mozambique).

A parallel meeting of pediatric oncologists specializing in leukemia was held, with a joint morning session featuring lectures on implementation science given by specialists from St. Jude: Caitlyn Duffy and Sheena Mukkada.

Several round tables brought together ophthalmologists to discuss issues related to setting up a multidisciplinary team and the therapeutic management of retinoblastoma. A course on conservative treatment by South African ophthalmologist Dr. Hamzah Mustak took place on June 5, as well as a course by Prof. Guillermo Chantada on the ARIA guidelines.

Practical work on implementation was carried out in groups of five to six ophthalmologists, identifying obstacles, defining strategies and techniques for evaluating results, with each team deciding on the issue that it considered to be the most significant obstacle.

Overall, participants greatly enjoyed the two days and left determined to solve their local problems!

The AMCC took advantage of this trip to meet with Dr. Nelly Fopoussi Kouamo, an ophthalmologist from northern Cameroon who sees around 20 new cases of retinoblastoma each year, as well as pediatric oncologists from Angola. Both teams would like to collaborate with the AMCC in the future.

We also met with the WCC (World Child Cancer) team, which works to improve childhood cancer care and with whom we could carry out joint initiatives.