Fresh cancer therapy in state graces

SYLIVESTER DOMASA

TANZANIA has welcomed new developments by research scientists who have created silicon nanoparticles to diagnose and cure cancer, saying it is closely monitoring the fresh therapy.

For the first time, Lomonosov Moscow State University researchers, jointly with German colleagues, have applied nanoparticles to detect and treat the non-communicable disease.

Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children Minister Ummy Mwalimu told the ‘Daily News’ over the phone in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the new findings can be of help to a growing cancer burden in the country and across the globe.

“Cancer cases are disturbing the health sector in the country. But with this fresh therapy, it is indeed a step ahead in the treatment plans,” she observed.

The health minister identified that among the growing cancer burden, Tanzania has been hit harder by cervical cancer.

World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that there were approximately 21,000 new cancer patients in Tanzania by 2002. About 32.5 per cent of all deaths due to cancer occur among people below 60 years of age. For women in this age group, cancer is responsible for about 43 per cent of deaths.

Medical experts lauded the research findings noting that the therapy can substitute radiotherapy where despite increasing number of cancer patients in the country, Tanzania remains with only two fully-working radiotherapy machines.

Across the country, about 95pc of cancer patients die at home and only 5 per cent in hospital. It is estimated that 25pc of Tanzania’s population is at the risk of cancer. Cancer of the uterine cervix was the tumour most frequently treated by radiation, as well as breast, esophagus, skin and bladder cancers.

In women, cancer of the cervix and breast are the most common types. Cancer of the Cervix represents about 35-40pc of all cancer cases and 55-65pc of all cancers in women.

Current estimates indicate that every year 7,515 women in Tanzania are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 6,009 die of the disease. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with development of nearly all cases of cervical cancer.

Among men, Kaposi’s sarcoma, followed by esophagus and head and neck cancers, are the commonest, while there is evidence that incidences of cancer of the prostate are on the rapid upward trend.