Paediatrician oncologist: Children's cancer treatment in Estonia hampered by bureaucracy

Paediatrician oncologist Kadri Saksa says children's cancer treatment in Estonia is hindered by bureaucratic obstacles. International clinical trials that would help find more effective treatment methods reach Estonia only thanks to the support of professional associations and hospitals, and doctors have to coordinate them in their own time.

Estonian paediatrician oncologist Kadri Saksa has raised a concerning issue: children's cancer treatment in Estonia is hampered by bureaucratic obstacles that impede the adoption of modern treatment methods.

According to Saksa, international clinical trials aimed at finding more effective cancer treatment approaches reach Estonia only thanks to the support of professional associations and hospitals. The problem is that doctors have to coordinate and implement these trials in their own time, which means an additional burden for healthcare workers who already operate under significant pressure.

This situation means that Estonian children may not always have access to the latest and most effective treatment options at the same time as their peers elsewhere in Europe. Participation in international trials is particularly important in paediatric oncology, as these are rare diseases and a single country cannot collect sufficient data alone to evaluate new treatment methods.

Bureaucratic obstacles to organising clinical trials are recognised as a problem across Europe, but for smaller countries like Estonia, the consequences are particularly painful – the country often remains excluded from international cooperation projects or joins them with delays. Paediatrician oncologists hope that the problem will receive national attention and that conditions will be created to deliver evidence-based cancer treatment without relying on doctors' own time.