Cancer cases more than double in four years – UCI

Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) has said it registered up to 7,000 new cases of cancer in 2021 which more than doubled the 3,000 cases it detected in 2018.
Officials told Monitor that the increase in cases is resulting in long waiting hours to access services due to limited facilities and specialists.

Ms Christine Namulindwa, the UCI spokesperson, said the survival rate for adult cancer patients at the centre is still very low at 20 percent because of late reporting. 
Dr Henry Ddungu, a consultant at the UCI, yesterday blamed the rise in cancer cases on increased adoption of lifestyles that predispose individuals to cancer risks.  “We have factors like an aging population, lifestyle issues where people are not exercising as much as they should yet they are eating foods that are easily absorbed and cause weight gain,” the expert said.

According to available scientific information, cancer can develop at any age but as one gets older, most types of cancer become more common. This is because body cells can get damaged over time and this damage can then build up, and can sometimes lead to cancer. 
Information from www.cancer.org indicates that excess weight causes the body to make and circulate more hormones that can stimulate cancer growth. 

“Being overweight or obese increases the risk of several cancers, including those of the breast (in women past menopause), colon and rectum, endometrium (the lining of the uterus), esophagus, pancreas, liver, and kidney, as well as several others,” the information from the website reads.
Dr Ddungu said it is absurd that Ugandans are also avoiding vaccines that shield them from infection-related cancer.   “In Uganda, we also have preventable cancer like cancer of the cervix that can be prevented using vaccination [human papilloma virus vaccination]; cancer of the liver can also be prevented through [Hepatitis B] vaccination, among others. Infection-related cancers are quite common in our settings,” he said.

Dr Jackson Orem, the UCI director, earlier said the facility is stretched because the infrastructure and human resources to handle patients are limited.
“The incident of cancer is going up and the number of new cases is also going up. That means people who used to be hesitant about coming out to be tested or treated are now coming out,” Dr Orem said.
The director said cancer prevention is still a challenge because of the limited involvement of policymakers in addition to limited resources.

“Unlike other diseases like malaria, putting up infrastructure, equipment and human resource to handle is quite easy, but when you come to cancer, it is a lot different. We are going to have four regional cancer centres in Mbarara for western Uganda, one in Mbale for the eastern part, one in northern Uganda and another one in West Nile,” Dr Orem said.
“By 2026, we should have four regional cancer centres. As I speak, we have only broken ground for the one in Gulu and it is the only one for which we have resources. We also need resources for the other three,” he added.
Cancer cases
Ms Christine Namulindwa, the UCI spokesperson, said of the 7,000 new cases, 10 percent were children.  She said the survival rate for children is higher at 50 percent. 
Dr Noleb Mugisha, the head of cancer prevention at the UCI, said childhood cancer is highly curable.  
“They are not lifestyle diseases like it is in adults. We tell adults to stop smoking or drinking to reduce the risk of cancer, but in children, the cancer is caused by mutation of genetic materials,” Dr Mugisha said.
“Cancers in children don’t have specific symptoms and signs so you have to take the child to the hospital to detect. As parents, when a child is sick, one of the potential causes could be cancer,” he said.

Dr Mugisha cited swelling, persistent fever, walking difficulties, weight loss, bleeding or losing teeth  as some of the common symptoms among children with cancer. “Cancers in children progress much faster, so if they are not treated early, they will die before an adult who developed cancer around the same time,” he said.
The facility attended to more than 65,000 patients in 2021, according to Ms Namulindwa. “Our services are of high quality because we have some of the best [radiotherapy] machines in the region. Our treatment is free but we charge between Shs20,000 to Shs25,000 which is a maintenance fee for the [radiotherapy] machine,” she said.