- The nurse in charge of oncology at CGTRH Lucy Njoki said breast and cervical cancer are among the leading cases at the facility.
- According to Njoki, they have handled 1,827 patients with breast cancer 1,338(cervical cancer) 1045 (esophagus cancer) and 634 cases of prostate cancer.
Image: FILE
Some 4,844 cancer patients have been attended to at the new multi-million cancer centre at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital in the past nine months, data from the hospital shows.
The nurse in charge of oncology at CGTRH Lucy Njoki said breast and cervical cancer are among the leading cases at the facility,
According to Njoki, in the past nine months, they have handled 1,827 patients with breast cancer 1,338(cervical cancer) 1045 (esophagus cancer) and 634 cases of prostate cancer.
The facility, which was built in partnership between the national and county government, was officially opened in February by former President Uhuru Kenyatta and offers both radiotherapy and chemotherapy sessions.
It has been fitted with state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines and can treat up to 120 patients per week.
However, Njoki said that since the addition of the radio and chemotherapy clinic the numbers have increased.
Njoki said in a day they attend to 40 people coming for radiotherapy services and another 40 people who are seen by the consultants.
“The number has increased drastically, initially before we had this radiotherapy unit we used to refer our patients to Nairobi and not every patient could afford to go because it is costly and was hectic," Njoki said.
“This unit has really done a good job for us, we are able to do everything in our facility, we are doing radio and chemotherapy."
She said that there is still need for more awareness and screening to be done in the community because they are receiving patients who are already at stages three and four of cancer.
“By screening people in the community we will get our patients on time and diagnosed cancer at stage one or two which is very curable than stage three and four," she said.
She said that breast and cervical cancer are leading because people come for treatment when it is late.
Njoki said that they need to conduct medical camps in Kwale and Kilifi because they have realised that the highest number of their patients come from the two counties.
“As we start the year in January we intend to do quarterly screening to get our patients on time, we want to create awareness so that everybody understands the signs of breast cancer, which is affecting even the young girls, right now we have a 16-year-girl with breast cancer,” she said.
Due to the increase in cervix cancer cases, Njoki said they are vaccinating girls aged nine to 15 for free.
"We need to do awareness on all types of cancer including prostate cancer among men. Breast cancer is genetic therefore if your mother had it, it is good to get screened early,"she said.
Obesity is also a cause of cancer and that is why Njoki said that they are urging the residents to do exercises daily including walking.
The oncologist said that poverty also contributes to cancer cases because people take too long to seek treatment due to lack of money.
“Some are not aware of where to go or what to do, we also have those who believe cancer is caused by witchcraft so they opt to visit herbalists and by the time they come to us for treatment, it is usually too late,” she said.
For men breast cancer is not rare, she said that out of 100 you can get only 1 positive case.
When the facility was being opened patients were promised NHIF cards for their treatment. Njoki said that so far the cover is easing the burden of treatment costs to patients where it pays Sh72,000 for cancer patients.
“If we encounter a patient on day one and discover they don't have NHIF cover, we usually make sure that they are first registered for it. Mombasa Cement Company pays for them and also some church organisations pay for the poor” she said.
“We always ensure that no one misses the treatment because of cash, we don't chase them away, the hospital usually waives the treatment cost for them and we treat all patients equally," she said.
She urged the government, hospitals and health officers to help in creating more awareness.
CGTRH clinical oncologist Fatma Mohammed said cancer is common among people in their 40s but it is concerning the youths in their 20s are also being affected.
“We are doing well and taking a great step in terms of cancer treatment but we still have a long way to go in terms of awareness," Mohammed said.
"There is still stigma in the community, therefore, we need to do a lot of sensitisation on the culture, especially in Mombasa."
(Edited by Tabnacha O)