The Aga Khan University in partnership with the Aga Khan
University Hospital (AKUHN) on Friday kicked off a two-day breast cancer
symposium.
The Ministry of Health,
National Institutes of Health-Kenya, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Centre, the Union for International Cancer Control, and MD Anderson
Cancer Centre are the other partners in the meeting. Shawn Bolouki, the
chief executive officer, AKUHN, said the event was significant as it
comes at a time when the hospital is increasing its investment in modern
technology for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
DIAGNOSIS
Dr
Miriam Mutebi, lecturer and breast cancer surgeon at AKU and co-chair
of the symposium, said the meeting offers global perspectives on best
practices in the management of the disease.
“This
partnership provides a platform for deliberations on the most recent
updates in breast cancer diagnosis treatment,” Dr Shubra Ghosh of MD
Anderson Cancer Centre said.
“We
recently acquired an ultra-modern Positron Emission Tomography (PET)/CT
scanner and Cyclotron. A first in East and Central Africa, we are
confident that the PET/ CT and Cyclotron will revolutionise cancer
diagnostics and follow up treatment in the region, and East Africans
will not need to travel abroad for cancer treatment,” he said.
RESOURCES
Dr
Mutebi said it will take into consideration resource-poor settings in
Sub Saharan Africa. “This conference is the first of its kind in Kenya
and we want to make it a recurring annual event that aims to address the
challenges of oncology care and provide region specific solutions as
well as draw upon the expertise and experience of international,
regional and local faculty.”
“As a
cancer patient, where you live in the world should never be the
determinant of the quality of care that you receive. The underlying
ethos, when we conceptualised this forum, is that low resource settings
should not be equivalent to sub-optimal care. We envisage building a
regional network that will allow us to constantly challenge ourselves as
healthcare practitioners, policy makers, cancer advocates, and care
givers, to innovate, iterate and come up with region specific, resource
and culturally appropriate strategies to tackle cancer care. These
strategies would incorporate internationally recommended best practices
and would always have our patients, at the centre of our focus,” she
concluded.
DELIBERATIONS
Dr
Shubra Ghosh, project director for global programmes at MD Anderson
Cancer Centre said in spite of the regional gains achieved over the past
decade, there is still limited availability of breast conservation
therapies, inadequate access to drugs, few oncology specialists and
adherence to harmful socio-cultural beliefs and practices. “The
partnership between AKU and the local, regional and international
oncology centres provides the platform for deliberations on the most
recent updates in breast cancer diagnosis treatment, and palliative
care”
“In Kenya, statistics show that
70 to 80per cent of cancer cases are diagnosed at a late stage due to
lack of awareness, inadequate diagnostic facilities, and increased cost
of treatment compounded by the high poverty index. Late stage disease
has poor outcomes and is more costly to manage. In order to change this,
it is important for policy makers to be engaged and to hear from both
our local and international experts. We are greatly encouraged to have
the Ministry of health and National Institutes of Health Kenya, playing
a key role, as we build these critical partnerships,” Dr Shahin Sayed,
assistant professor of pathology at AKU and Chair of the symposium said.
IMPROVING
Kenya
is currently ranked as one of the countries with the highest age
specific rate of breast cancer in Africa, according to the 2012 GLOBOCAN
report. Breast cancer ranks as the fifth cause of death from cancer
overall and it is the most frequent cause of cancer death in women in
less developed regions. This trend in Africa has been attributed to a
change in the occurrence of established breast cancer risk factors that
favours rising incidence. However, there is limited information about
the challenges of cancer management and attempts at improving outcomes
in Africa.
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