Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Sifelani Tsiko
6 August 2007
Harare — THE forthcoming African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer conference to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, later this month presents an important platform for sharing information and experience to intensify efforts to improve collaboration in cancer education, research and practice in Africa.
The conference, which is scheduled to be held from August 24-28, is coming at a time when cancer rates are rising in Africa and most other developing countries.
It will be held under the theme: "Cancer in Africa -- Challenges and Opportunities" at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The AORTIC says the conference will bring together all levels of health care workers, ranging from doctors in all different specialties to nurses, health activists and NGOs involved in cancer education, research and practice.
There will be sessions on surgical training, colposcopy training, national cancer control programmes and world oncology on prostate, gastro-intestinal, cervical, breast and hematological cancers and HIV.
Colposcopy is a medical procedure to examine the cervix, oncology is the study of tumours (cancerous growths) while hematology refers to a branch of medicine that deals with related diseases, tests and medicines.
Africa still faces numerous challenges in terms of cancer education, research and practice and the treatment of cancer patients.
Africa has less than 100 radiotherapy machines in operation, which experts say fall short of the estimated need.
Radiotherapy services are only available in 21 countries in Africa.
Apart from the costly facilities, there are other challenges on the continent.
Screening, early diagnosis and the uptake of inexpensive drugs is equally important for patients, health experts say.
Health experts say high equipment costs, inadequate infrastructure, lack of qualified personnel and the flight of skilled health personnel has worsened the situation across the whole African continent.
Support for programmes for the care and treatment of cancer patients is still inadequate. Most African countries are still relying from support from international institutions which is now dwindling at a time experts say cancer rates in developing countries are rising.
Lack of adequate resources, drugs and equipment has weakened efforts for the care and treatment of patients on the continent.
Zimbabwe is one of the countries that is battling to raise more than US$1,5 million to buy new radiotherapy machines for cancer treatment at Parirenyatwa Hospital.
Most of the radiotherapy machines are old and constantly break down affecting the care and treatment of cancer patients.
"Our machines have been running for 10 years and have outlived their life span. We are, therefore, looking for US$1,5 million to buy a new machine," Mr Thomas Zigora, the Parirenyatwa Hospital chief executive was quoted as saying.
Some patients who afford were now going to South Africa and Botswana for treatment while the poor were suffering quietly in their homes.
Health experts estimate that more than 5 million new patients require radiation therapy per year worldwide.
They attribute this partly to a rise in life expectancy rates.
The geography of cancer is changing fast and a new cancer epidemic is threatening Africa.
It is no longer a problem of the West. It is now also affecting Africans in the same way it is affecting people in the West.
Health experts say in some parts of Africa, the increased incidence of cancer is a result of economic development and populations that are living longer.
But in others, they say, cancer rates are rising directly as a result of the HIV and Aids pandemic with cancers such as Kaposi sarcoma, tumours which appear under the surface of the skin or on mucous membranes, becoming common.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 7,6 million people died of cancer in 2005.
The UN agency says 40 percent of the cases are preventable.
Cancer causes more deaths each year worldwide than HIV/Aids, TB and malaria combined.
By 2020, health experts estimate that there will be 15 million new cases of cancer every year, the majority in developing countries.
Africa is expected to register more than a million new cases a year and health experts say it is least able to cope in terms of health infrastructure.
"Africa will be particularly hard hit because it lacks the basic infrastructure to cope with a big growth in cancer in the years to come. If we can pool expertise and resources we can save tens of thousands of lives," a health official was quoted saying ahead of the global conference on cancer control held in May this year.
Massoud Samiei, head of the IAEA's Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy, says: "Across much of Africa, there is almost no cancer prevention or public education, and radiotherapy, which is used effectively on more than 50 percent of cancer patients in high-income countries, is simply unavailable to millions of cancer sufferers."
Non-communicable diseases are now a growing major public health concern in Africa, worsening the disease burden level of the continent battling against other communicable diseases such as malaria, HIV and Aids and tuberculosis.
Non-communicable diseases are those diseases that are, in simple terms, acquired over a period of time due to what people eat and how they live.
The most prominent NCDs include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, gout and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases among others.
Health experts say NCDs are linked to common preventable risk factors related to lifestyles.
These factors, they say, include tobacco use, an unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.
Many people in Africa are now consuming a lot of refined foods which are convenient but contain too much salt, sugar and fat but do not have enough fibre, vitamins and minerals.
They now eat less fresh fruit and vegetables than in the past, a change in food intake, which health experts say increases the risk of lifestyle nutrition related diseases such as cancer and heart diseases.
And as African health experts prepare for the coming conference, it will be important for them to come with a holistic plan of action that will help strengthen cancer education, research and practice on the continent.
Promoting healthy diets, mobilising funds for cancer programmes and for the procurement of equipment and addressing brain-drain problem is also critical for African patients who are the hardest hit.
Developing strategies for much-needed national cancer control programmes, conducting joint international cancer programmes and evaluating priorities taking into account specific needs of African patient will be important.
We can only hope that the conference will place the growing cancer problem in Africa at the forefront of the global health agenda.
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