NEW YORK – Beckman Coulter Life Sciences said Wednesday that it has received a $2.5 million grant, in partnership with the Indiana University School of Medicine, from the National Cancer Institute to expand an early detection program for pediatric leukemia and lymphoma in western Kenya.
The grant will be disbursed over a five-year period, during which the Indianapolis-based partners will enroll 500 patients into a study aimed at expanding access to pediatric lymphoma and leukemia testing. It continues work begun in 2018 to adapt flow cytometry methods for the early detection of these cancers, including sample workflow processes and personnel training.
The collaborators noted that leukemia and lymphoma mortality in Kenya has improved by up to 50 percent since the partnership began, fueling demand for more testing.
The funding will also help healthcare providers in western Kenya increase their testing capacity and reduce turnaround time, as well as support clinical studies comparing early-access screening with subclassifications of leukemias and lymphomas using patient bone marrow aspirates and peripheral blood for a less invasive sampling method.
Other collaborators include the AMPATH Reference Laboratory, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, the University of Missouri, and the Burkitt's Lymphoma Fund for Africa.
"While survival rates and treatment options are strong, if you can't make a diagnosis, the child has no chance," Terry Vik, professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine and the project's director, said in a statement. "That's why we have focused on getting an accurate diagnosis as quickly as possible. We've tripled the number of diagnoses annually and improved survival by offering curative therapy in many of the common pediatric cancers we see."