2.1 Participants and definitions
Potential survey centers and participants were identified through
membership records of regional professional associations and scientific
meetings, particularly the St. Jude-VIVA Forum in Pediatric Oncology and
ASEAN Society of Pediatric Surgeons. This research study
(SHS/CIRB/2020/2020) was granted IRB waiver.
We defined pediatric solid tumor units (PSTUs) as institutional
departments that care for pediatric solid tumors, with at least 1
pediatric oncologist or 1 pediatric surgeon who are either in-house or
employed in a part-time capacity. Multidisciplinary tumor boards (MDTBs)
were defined as any formal meeting attended by at least pediatric
oncologists and pediatric surgeons, together with one more related
subspecialty (pediatric-trained or general radiologists, radiation
oncologists, pathologists, nuclear medicine physicians and nurses).
For the first part of the study, we included all PSTUs from Southeast
Asian LMICs with at least one respondent (either pediatric oncologist or
pediatric surgeon) in order to profile the available specialties and
MDTBs at each PSTU. Exclusion criteria were refusal to participate or
non-response, and incomplete or delayed responses beyond study period.
For the survey in the second part of the study, only PSTUs with MDTBs
were involved.
Development and conduct of survey
From the 46 Southeast Asian PSTUs, centers with MDTBs were shortlisted
for the full survey. From this subset of PSTUs with MDTBs, 1 pediatric
surgeon and 1 pediatric oncologist from each center were contacted via
email to complete the survey via an online electronic form or a manual
form. Automatic online language translation was used in the former to
assist with respondents with difficulty with English language. Following
two weeks given for response, a second oncologist or surgeon from the
PSTU was contacted, failing which a null response was recorded.
Survey questions were adapted from published surveys on MDTB
organization and dynamics 23-25, and drafted in
English. The survey was composed of three main parts. First, to profile
the respondents, they were asked about their type of specialty, years of
practice and their estimated oncology workload. Next, to profile the
center’s MDTB, respondents were queried about the frequency, attendance
of MDTB members and available resources, and finally, their views on
MDTBs using a 5-point Likert scale.