Mexico Regional Program

Built upon foundational relationships that go back several decades, the Mexico Regional Program supports the treatment of childhood cancer in a country where 7,000 children 18 years of age and younger are diagnosed with cancer each year.

St. Jude first launched a capacity-building partnership in Mexico in 1999 with Hospital Pediátrico de Sinaloa Culiacán. This partnership was followed by others, with Hospital Civil de Guadalajara in 2001 and with Hospital Pediátrico de Tijuana in 2007. These efforts were designed to address the global disparity in pediatric cancer survival rates by using a “twinning” model to foster one-on-one relationships with hospitals.

In 2018, with the launch of St. Jude Global, the Mexico Regional Program evolved into Mexico in Alliance with St. Jude (MAS), which replaced the original outreach program with a broader and more comprehensive initiative. MAS aims to increase the survival of children with cancer in Mexico from a baseline of less than 50% to the international goal of 60% by 2030.

Since its founding, MAS has consolidated partnerships with about 50 centers in Mexico, in collaboration with multiple sectors to improve the care of children with cancer in Mexico. 

Mexico in Alliance with St. Jude

MAS is an alliance between St. Jude, Casa de la Amistad para Niños Con Cancer, and pediatric hematology-oncology units in Mexico working to cure children with cancer.

The mission of MAS is to improve the quality of care for, and the survival of, children and adolescents with cancer through innovative education, treatment and research strategies. MAS achieves this through multisite intersectoral collaboration among government health care institutions and nonprofit organizations. Based on a shared vision, all children with cancer in Mexico will have comprehensive, systematized and excellent care.

The MAS collaboration began in 2016 with eight health care institutions, reaching 6% of children with cancer in the country. Today, MAS collaborates with more than 500 health professionals and about 50 healthcare institutions in Mexico, benefiting more than 50% of the country’s current population of children with cancer. 

MAS has established itself as a pioneer in the implementation of collaborative results-oriented projects and has received the support and acceptance of multiple stakeholders, organizations and key entities for the improvement of the care of children with cancer in Mexico. The network’s activities foster the decision-making capacity of the involved health professionals and institutions through a culture of mutual respect, joint learning and alliance.

Pillars of the Alliance

MAS has identified the following pillars to achieve the goal of increasing survival rates for pediatric patients with cancer to greater than 60% by 2030: 

Collaboration: This includes web-based and in-person collaboration and joint engagement of stakeholders. 

• Steering committee
• Operational team
• National and international alliances
• Strategic workshops
• Communication strategy

Modernization: Standardization and modernization of the diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancer in Mexico. This includes exploration of the feasibility of implementing a centralized laboratory approach for ALL diagnosis and implementation of a national Adapted Management Schema, among other tactics.

• Bridge Project
• Leukemias
• Solid tumors
• Validation

Quality improvement: Implementing, supporting and accelerating quality improvement initiatives on a broad range of topics, from cancer treatment delivery to supportive care. Some of the main initiatives are:

• Pediatric Early Warning Systems (EVAT/PEWS)
• Nurse educators
• Infection prevention and control
• Golden Hour 
• Coaching for quality improvement
• Palliative care

Evidence-based interventions: Development of a clinical and epidemiological research platform in pediatric oncology to help generate evidence-based interventions, such as:

• Retro-MAS ALL
• SJCARES Registry
• Educational opportunities
• Clinical Research Coordinators Network
• Best practices in research

Regional Initiatives

Numerous MAS initiatives, such as MAS Golden Hour and the Clinical Research Coordinators Network have been replicated in other countries of the St. Jude Global Alliance. 

Latin America Regional Advisory Committee

Mexico also has representation on the Regional Advisory Committee for Latin America (RAC LATAM), along with countries from Central and South America. This committee works as the region’s advisory body and represents its interests with a single voice in the Global Alliance. Uniting the Mexico and Central and South America regional programs, RAC LATAM aims to identify the region’s needs and priorities, inform resource procurement and distribution and optimize lines of work or projects. 

Our Team

Paola Friedrich, MD, MPH

Director, Mexico Regional Program 

Director, Central and South America Regional Program

Director, Metrics and Performance Unit

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty

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Naomi Echeandia

Manager, Mexico Regional Program

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Andrea Granadillo

Project Coordinator, Mexico Regional Program

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Contact

To learn more about the Mexico program or Mexico in Alliance with St. Jude, email mexico@stjude.org.