News Ukraine crisis: Italy

Italy offers treatment to Ukrainian children with cancer

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

03 Mar, 2022

Rome hospital offers medical treatment to seven-year-old Kyiv cancer patient.

Seven Ukrainian children with cancer are to be welcomed to Piemonte in northern Italy where they will receive medical treatment, the region's governor Alberto Cirio stated on Wednesday.The little patients, who will be treated at the Regina Margherita hospital in Turin, will be collected this weekend from the Ukraine-Moldovan border, along with their families, Cirio said.

Meanwhile in Rome, a seven-year-old Ukrainian girl has already made her way to the paediatric oncology ward at the Gemelli hospital after fleeing the bombs in Kyiv with her mother, reports news agency ANSA.

Referred to as "Anna" by Italian media, the girl is suffering from a nephroblastoma kidney tumour which has spread to her lungs.

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She will receive medical treatment at the Roman hospital, including chemotherapy and surgery from a team led by Dr Antonio Ruggiero.Anna and her mother have been welcomed to Rome by volunteers from the Pediatric Oncology Parents Association (AGOP) who will look after their accommodation once Anna is discharged.

After her condition was diagnosed in late January, the little girl started a course of chemotherapy at the International Cancer Centre in Kyiv however the treatment was stopped after the Russian invasion and bombardment of Ukraine.

The outbreak of war triggered the start of an epic journey for Anna, who was met with the kindness of many strangers along her way to Italy where the child's grandmother works as a care-giver near Rome.

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After taking a 30-hour bus trip to the Romanian border, Anna and her mother continued by foot before being welcomed by a family who gave them shelter and, together with the Romanian Red Cross, helped to buy them a plane ticket to Rome.“Here with us the child will continue her treatment programme which will see the continuation of chemotherapy for about two weeks", Dr Ruggiero told state broadcaster RAI - "subsequently, surgery will be scheduled to remove the diseased kidney and, if possible, also the lung metastasis."

Dr Ruggiero added that he was "confident about the outcome of our treatments."