Kenyans still dying of preventable cancers

If you love a tipple, a smoke and you are iatrophobic – fear visiting doctors – you may be a target of one of the most efficient killers in Kenya today.

Related Stories

• Kenya lacks machines and experts
• Law to shield cancer patients from discrimination

Cancer, which the world is focusing on this Thursday, is almost a death sentence in the country and this need not be so. If caught early, most cancers can indeed be cured. But even before so, some of them are quite preventable. For example, it is emerging that most of cancers of the throat and mouth are as a result of alcohol intake, a lifestyle that can be moderated. About three quarters of oral cancers are thought to be caused by drinking alcohol and smoking.

However, for a cancer to be caught in good time and be managed, people have to acquire a healthcare seeking culture – there should be a good medical infrastructure including personnel and the care needs to be affordable. But, currently these prerequisites are absent.

Researchers from the Kenya Medical Research Institute, pored over death records for three years in Nairobi and found those with cancer were more likely to die than if they had any other affliction.

Third highest killer

The study which looked at data at the Nairobi Cancer Registry, the Registrar of Births and Deaths, Department of Civil Registration and the city’s population statistics, indicates that during 2003 to 2005, almost 6,000 new cases of cancer were reported. In the period, about 60,000 deaths were reported out of which 2,293 were related to cancer.

Though cancers are now ranked as the third highest killer after infectious and heart diseases in the country, rarely do those who get it survive and if they do, the quality of life is extremely lowered. Many patients who undergo intense radiology for neck and head cancers, some of the most prevalent in the country, will experience several side effects.

Observing 38 patients treated at Kenyatta National Hospital last year, comprising 28 males and 10 females between 21 and 69 years, researchers from the University of Nairobi recorded high levels of side effects among the respondents. The study, published in the East African Medical Journal in April, indicates that despite advances in diagnostic and treatment techniques, of those treated for head and neck cancers that just about half will live for roughly five years.

“In those patients who survive and become disease-free, intense treatment may lead to physical and or psychosocial disabilities,” says the study. The researchers say most patients put under radical radiation for neck and head cancers will experience constant sores, pain, skin reaction and even loss of voice.

“The most common side effect was dryness of the mouth followed by pain and soreness of the mouth, pain and itchiness of the skin, hoarseness or loss of voice and difficulty in swallowing.”

Cancer is not a case of Nairobi or cities alone as demonstrated at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Eldoret, which treats about 671 cases annually. Some 5,366 patients were diagnosed to have cancer and attended to at hospitals in Eldoret between 1999 and 2006 with almost an equal number between males and females.

Cancers of the cervix and prostrate are the most common among females and males respectively, according to a study done by Moi University, Eldoret and published in the same journal last January. The study, Burden and Pattern of Cancer in Western Kenya, found a general increase in the number of patients with the cancer called kaposi’s sarcoma which is associated with HIV/Aids.

Abnormal tissue

Kaposi’s sarcoma is a cancer that causes abnormal tissue to grow under the skin, in the linings of the mouth, nose and other organs. The study says health workers are ill-prepared to effectively recognise and take appropriate measures when faced with cancer patients: “This results from a combination of inadequate knowledge, poor attitude, lack of appropriate skills and facilities to manage the patients effectively.”