Cancer institute resumes radiotherapy treatment

KAMPALA.

Cancer patients in need of radiotherapy services to kill and stop cancer cells from growing by use of high-energy rays, can now readily access services at Mulago hospital.
Dr Jackson Orem, the executive director of the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), said the services resumed in the second week of December ahead of the official date of commencing operation of the newly acquired cobalt 60 radiotherapy machine scheduled for January 18.
“Patients are already receiving radiotherapy at the unit but we have not made it public because we are waiting for the official launch,” Dr Orem told Saturday Monitor by telephone yesterday.
He, however, hesitant to delve into the details.
During a media tour of the radiotherapy unit last month, Dr Orem, assured the public that the new machine is more efficient and computerised as it uses a maximum of 45 seconds to treat one patient compared to the previous four minutes.
The development comes after the arrival in August and the subsequent assemble of the more advanced new cobalt 60 machine last month.
The old radiotherapy machine broke down in March last year, leaving the more than 4,000 would cancer patients in a situation of despair. Although majority of the patients were switched to chemotherapy as an alternative treatment, it is not as effective.
Unlike chemotherapy involving the use of a combination of different drugs which may also damage vital parts of the body such as the kidney and liver, radiotherapy localises treatment without affecting other parts of the body
A total of 30 to 40 patients receive the service on a daily basis and the machine is not operated at night.
A radiotherapist at the Institute, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to press, said: “We have not yet seen a backlog but the numbers keep increasing every day so the night shift may be reinstated as the numbers keep increasing.”
Other patients will also be saved from transport and accommodation costs they have been incurring to travel to Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, where government had since secured free radiotherapy treatment.
Patients have also been decrying the costly alternative chemotherapy treatment, which on average costs Shs220, 000 to Shs700, 000 per week depending on drug prescription.
As a result, Hospice Africa Uganda, a non-government organisation which offers palliative care to terminally-ill people, indicated earlier that some 1,183 cancer patients they were supporting have since died because they could not afford alternative treatments.