Democratising Genomic Diagnostics: A New Model for Global Childhood Cancer Care

Childhood cancers, effectively fatal 60 years ago, are now curable for up to 85% of children with access to contemporary treatments and care. However, for the majority of children in resource-limited settings, outcomes remain poor, with global survival rates closer to 20%—representing one of the largest disparities in global health. Despite substantial investments to expand access to medicines and care, diagnostic challenges remain a critical barrier. Analyses suggest that a significant proportion of healthcare resources are wasted due to inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis, while efforts to scale conventional diagnostic approaches have faced implementation challenges in low-resource settings. This course highlights the work of the St. Jude Global-led DARGAN study, which is developing and evaluating approaches to expand access to high-quality diagnostic testing through a global network. This includes the exploration of nanopore-based sequencing technologies, such as adaptive sampling.