Sheba Medical Team Saves Eyesight of Dozens of Nigerian Children

A Sheba medical team, led by Prof. Ido Didi Fabian has returned to Israel after a successful 5-day mission to Nigeria, where they used their expertise to improve health outcomes for pediatric eye cancer patients and increased the capacity for long-term quality optical care in southern Nigeria.

With an estimated 1 in 15,000 Nigerian children inflicted with pediatric ocular cancer, the Sheba mission focused on treating children with retinoblastoma, which can be deadly if not caught early. The team, consisting of five specialists led by Prof. Ido Didi Fabian, an ocular oncology specialist at the Goldschleger Eye Institute of Sheba Medical Center, treated patients and established an intra-arterial chemotherapy center in southern Nigeria to provide ongoing care for eye cancer patients in the region.

“Intra-arterial chemotherapy is a highly effective treatment modality that can make a significant difference in the outcome of cancer treatment, and it is something that we have a lot of experience with at Sheba,” said Prof. Ido Didi Fabian. “Together with my Sheba colleagues, I am honored to have had the opportunity to share our knowledge and skills with our local colleagues in Nigeria and to work together to treat infants with this life-saving treatment.”

Intra-arterial chemotherapy is a treatment option for certain types of cancer that involves delivering chemotherapy directly to the tumor through a catheter inserted into an artery. This method allows for higher doses of chemotherapy to be delivered directly to the tumor, while minimizing the exposure of healthy tissue to the chemotherapy drugs.

You can watch the team in action in this edition!

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