Monday 22 July 2013

Cancer Research in Kenya

Cancer known medically as malignant neoplasm is a broad group of various diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth whose main properties include; sustained proliferative signaling, evasion of growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replication, inducing angiogenesis, activating invasion and metastasis, reprogramming energy metabolism and escape of  immune destruction. Current treatment regimens include chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery and chances of patient survival vary greatly depending on the type and location of the cancer and the stage of disease at the onset of treatment however the effectiveness of chemotherapy is often limited by toxicity to other tissues in the body with other serious side effects.There is need to do cancer research not only in Kenya but worldwide to come up with better treatment regimens.herbal? 

2 comments:

  1. I will equate this blog topic to one quote, “Sometimes the littlest thing in life changes something forever and there will be times when you wish you can go back to how things used to be but you just can't because things have changed so much“. That little malignant cell can change ones life forever. This again reminds me of “top doctors-Louis Otieno-on K24 TV about Cancer, a topic that was aired sometime last year (if not, then early this year).

    Thanks Dr. Dominic (my undergraduate classmate) for the choice of the topic, a topic that may justify the fact that “you can be happy on the outside but dying inside”. I totally agree that one of the major constraints that have adversely affected the health sector in both industrialized and developing countries is the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), especially those whose increase in prevalence and incidence still remain unclear, but related to changes in lifestyle and exposure to carcinogens. Some of the common non-communicable diseases include diabetes, hypertension cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancers. Initially cancer was thought to be a problem of developed countries. However it is now becoming a serious health problem in developing countries, especially in Kenya, as it currently ranks among the top causes of mortality.

    To support you Dominic on the need for research, is the fact that cancer poses as a major disease burden in Kenya, with considerable variations in incidence; mortality; survival; overall disease burden; causative environmental factors; and mix of prevention, detection, treatment, and palliative programs that make up a country's cancer control strategy. Kenya is no exception. In one of the Cancer study that I carried out, it is evident that health research is increasing in Africa, but most resources are currently channelled towards infectious diseases and health system development. This happens despite the fact that WHO predicts 27% increase in NCDs in Africa over the next decade (McCarthy et al 2010). Even more surprising is the fact that according to the WHO, cancer has a higher mortality rate than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Despite this fact, cancer is not recognized as a high-priority health problem in most of these countries.

    In the study, some of the preliminary findings showed that implementation of cancer programmes in Kenya is mainly affected by fewer number of cancer specialists in Kenya (medical oncologist, pathologist, radiation oncologist), the increasing number of risk factors cancer being a lifestyle disease, challenges related to district level diagnosis early diagnosis and early treatment, lack of advocacy and stigmatization of cancer, funding constraints and the requirements for various options for treatment (surgical treatment, medical treatment, radiotherapy—targeted therapy, chemotherapy treatment—systemic/wholebody treatment) ---and now your topic of concern, herbal.

    Given the high probability of increasing incidences of cancer in Kenya, there is a need to develop and evaluate technical methods, treatment options and policy systems with which to try and prevent or treat cancer in ways that can be appropriate, effective and affordable.

    I look forward to reading the results of your interesting work.

    Dr. Oscar Okumu
    Research Associate, CABE
    Kenya
    Email:oscokumu03@yahoo.com

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  2. I am actually working on breast cancer,trying to develop treatment regimens that have no side effects or minimal.Looking forward to some beneficial results.

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