IF THERE'S any one group that has mastered the art of making do and grown big with that, it’s the Children’s Cancer Center of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), an endeavor that started with just four beds in what was then the Davao Medical Center’s pediatrician ward.
Two years later in 2006, it became ten beds. By 2010, it had become the largest dedicated pediatric oncology unit in a public hospital, complete with hematology and oncology specialists and support staff, and in 2016, it became the Children Cancer Center under SPMC’s Cancer Institute, and in 2022, the final gift of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte to children with cancer in Mindanao, the Cancer Diagnostic and Treatment Facility was inaugurated.
Growth like this will not go unnoticed, and thus, the center has become a showcase of sorts for those in similar situations.
Just last month, there was the team from the Port Moresby General Hospital, the biggest hospital in Papua New Guinea with an official bed capacity of 900, but which spills off to upto 1,200.
They came to observe, learn, and apply what the center has done to grow this big.
Dr. Benjamin Daur, pediatric oncologist at the PMGH, said they have a ten-bed unit for child cancer patients, like SPMC in 2006. It is the only child cancer ward in the whole of PNG, which has a total population of between 10 million and 11 million, around half of Mindanao’s population.
Dr. Daur said he learned about the Children Cancer Center through former CCC Director Dr. Mae Concepcion J. Dolendo at the 4th ICPCN International Conference on Children’s Palliative Care in Manila in 2025.
“So I was telling her how I was interested in learning from other places, and she suggested SPMC. And I was so inspired by her story, how she told me that she started off from four beds and how those four beds have turned into an entire cancer institute,” Dr. Daur said in Dr. Dolendo’s office.
He admits that the facility took him by surprise.
“I didn’t understand the scale of the institute until I came here on Monday (April 11, 2026).
Then I realized, wow, it’s an entire building. So that was really amazing. That’s very inspiring.”
With Dr. Daur were Seralyne Lino, a registered nursing office, and Sr. Carol Konj, also a registered nurse at PMGH’s pediatric oncology ward.
Their unit in PMGH was initiated by Dr. Gwenda Anga, the first pediatric oncologist at their
hospital. They have around 40% survival rate for those diagnosed and treated, which they wished could be increased more.
RN Lino said they learned more about chemotherapy drugs and their administration, but singled out CCC’s emphasis on hygiene. This alone solves many complications.
RN Konj, for her part, was elated that their visit coincided with a two-day biotherapy workshop. “So we also attended, and it was very informative.”
What impressed Dr. Daur most is the weekly meeting CCC holds with other allied units of the hospital to tackle each case.
“They do a lot of case discussions. One thing we learned here is whenever a child comes into the hospital, a new patient, on the next Monday they discuss the cases straight away and I think that’s something we haven’t been doing in our setting,” he said, but it’s something that they can do right away.
“And so the team has a plan for each child as soon as they come in. They have the entire week to work up the child because they do the meeting on Monday.”
Dr. Dolendo, in a separate chat, identified the meeting as their Multidisciplinary team meeting with doctors, nurses, and support staff. The doctors include CCC’s team of pediatric
hematologists and oncologists, infectious diseases, palliative care, intensive care, and other invited specialty teams.
They have been doing this every week to address each patient’s concerns. This has been the culture since 2004, at the very start when there were just four beds. She started all of this at CCI, but has now handed the reins to the next generation of pediatric oncologists, among them Drs. Cheryl Ann Diez and Bai Johanna Zainal.
Dolendo is now Honorary Consultant, SPMC-CCI and Program Lead and Independent Contractor of St. Jude Global Asia Pacific Region.
SPMC-CCI also has social workers, which Dr. Daur found to be an eye-opener. SPMC-CCI’s social workers are provided by the House of Hope Foundation for Kids with Cancer exclusively for CCI patients.
“These social workers provide psychosocial support and refer for financial and other necessary assistance to House of Hope and other assistance, such as Davao City’s Lingap para sa Mahirap, Department of Health’s Medical Assistance for Indigent Program (MAIP), and the Malasakit Center, and other assistance programs,” Dr. Dolendo said.
Dr. Daur said one major takeaway from their visit is how they can make small changes within their institution that can save them a lot of resources and enable them to serve more.
Relatable is how Dr. Daur describes how SPMC-CCI is doing things.
“Because I guess you could go to a more advanced setting like Singapore and Australia and then go back to your country and be like, oh, that’s such a big service gap,” he said.
Seeing how CCI does it, he feels more inspired to do more, as CCI has shown that it can be done even with limited resources.
“It was like, ‘Oh, this makes sense!’ I just felt appreciative to be here. But it was more than what I expected, he said. ”We are optimistic that we can start working on things.”
The ten-day observership training at SPMC-CCI was made possible through St. Jude Global Asia Pacific regional program and SIOP Oceania, the regional continental branch of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP), representing professionals in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, working to improve childhood cancer care. SAE