Make treatment of cancer accessible

Facility. Uganda Cancer Institute in Mulago, Kampala. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA

What you need to know:

The issue: Cancer month
Our view: Government should increase the number of cancer treatment facilities in different parts of the country and motivate experts to work in rural areas where accessibility to treatment is a challenge.

On Wednesday, Uganda celebrated its 57th independence anniversary. Coincidentally, October is also the cancer awareness month. Sadly, many patients cannot access cancer treatment in Uganda mainly due to inadequate treatment facilities in the country.
According to doctors at the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), the number of patients that receive treatment at the facility is much lower than the number that does not get treatment. Data from the Global Cancer Observatory shows that 32,000 new cancer patients are registered in Uganda annually. However, only 5,000 of these on average are received at the UCI.

Dr Nixon Niyonzima, the laboratory director and head of research and training at UCI, in June told journalists that they receive a quarter of the cases that they should be treating at the institute.
Cancer can be treated either by using radiotherapy, chemotherapy or through surgery.
Data from UCI shows that out of the 5,000 that seek treatment, 499 are estimated to be children while 4,497 are adults suffering mainly from cervical cancer, breast cancer, prostate and karposis sarcoma.
Many patients are left to live or die in pain due to inadequate facilities in the country. Some desperate cancer patients who can afford opt for better treatment services abroad.

An estimated 22,000 Ugandans are believed to have succumbed to different types of cancers last year, according to records from the Kampala Cancer Registry. Doctors cite late diagnosis of the disease as one of the main reasons why most cancer patients pass on.
More than 80 per cent of the patients on treatment appear at the cancer institute when their cancers are mature, according to the UCI executive director, Dr Jackson Orem.

Founded in 1967, just five years after independence as the Lymphoma Treatment Centre to treat childhood lymphomas, predominantly Burkett’s lymphoma, the most common childhood lymphoma in Uganda and endemic to tropical Africa, Uganda Cancer Institute still grapples with several challenges, including poor funding and inadequate health personnel. According to UCI, the country has only 20 oncologists while the demand for them has increased due to the growth of the cancer malady in the population.

These patients who are never accessed by the health systems, need diagnostics, therapeutic and palliative services and robust scientific research to control the cancer epidemic. Government should increase the number of cancer treatment facilities in different parts of the country and motivate experts to work in rural areas where accessibility to treatment is a challenge.

People from all parts of the country should be able to have easy access to cancer treatment.
To deal with the increase in cancer patients, UCI should procure more functional radiotherapy machines.