Study carried out between 2008 and 2012 reveals the top 5 cancers at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH).
The study titled: Cancer in Kenya: types and infection-attributable. Data from the adult population of two National referral hospitals (2008-2012) was carried out by a young scientist from the University of Nairobi, Lucy Macharia, Dr. Marianne Mureithi and Prof. Omu Anzala, also from UoN.
The findings of the study indicated that in KNH, the top five cancers were: cervical breast, colorectal, chronic leukemia and stomach cancer while in MTRH, the five common types of cancers were Kaposi’s sarcoma breast, cervical, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and colorectal, chronic leukemia and esophageal cancer.
This study provided data on common types and trends of cancer and demonstrated that cancers associated with infectious agents contribute to the high burden of cancer in Kenya.
Strategies enforcing the use of preventive measures such as increased awareness, vaccination, early and regular screening and treatment should be enforced as majority of these cancers can be prevented with the control of the infectious agent.
Future studies need to ascertain that a given cancer is specifically caused by an infectious agent.
Click here to access the study
About the lead Author:
Lucy Macharia: PhD Candidate /Research Assistant
Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ms. Macharia is a young scientist from the School of Medicine, University of Nairobi selected to join a Prestigious mentee program of the African Academy of Sciences – (AESA’s-STEM program) through which by its collaboration with the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, gave her the opportunity to pursue her PhD in cancer research at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro under the supervision of Professor Vivaldo Moura-Neto.
