- The machine verifies the exact tumor position then adjusts the robot to precisely target the tumor.
- If this happens, Kenya will be the second country to own the machine in Africa after Egypt.
Image: INTERNET
Kenya has ordered a highly sophisticated machine to aid in the treatment of cancer known as a CyberKnife.
The machine which is to arrive in three months, uses advanced technologies to track tumours anywhere in the body.
The technology conducts non-invasive treatment for cancerous and non-cancerous tumours and other conditions where radiation therapy is indicated.
The machine is estimated to cost between $3 million to $5 million (Sh345 million to 500 million).
Its unique robotic design keeps the radiation on target even while the tumour moves. It can be used as an alternative to surgery or for patients who have inoperable or surgically complex tumours.
A CyberKnife is used in the treatment of various types of cancers including brain tumours, head and neck cancer, lung, breast, spinal, liver, pancreas and prostate cancers.
CyberKnife treatments are typically performed in one to five sessions.
The machine verifies the exact tumour position then adjusts the robot to precisely target it.
If this happens, Kenya will be the second country to own the machine in Africa after Egypt.
Prof Olive Mugenda told the Star on Wednesday that the machine is also used for radiotherapy but is very specialised and will be able to get to some organs, which are unreachable with the other machines.
“It is a machine that can turn 360 degrees and get to the corners that other machines cannot,” she said.
Mugenda is the chairperson of Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital board. The hospital hosts the Integrated Molecular Imaging Centre.
The KUTRRH boasts of two PET/CTs at its dedicated cancer centre for chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Since the centre was opened to the public in January, it has been able to attend to more than 400 patients. It attends to at least 20 patients daily.
Mugenda said they have not encountered any major challenges with the machines except for normal maintenance.
“Generally we are doing okay, the patients are happy. Of course machines are machines they will break down occasionally so we get people to repair,” Mugenda said.
Dr Harish Nagaraj, a nuclear medicine physician at the hospital said the machine will be a game changer in the treatment of cancer.
"The CyberKnife is the latest and only few countable places in the world have it,” he said.
Nagaraj said the machine will lead to inbound medical tourism and patients will start coming to Kenya instead of going to South Africa or India.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said a number of deaths in the country related to cancer are as a result of infrastructural and resource limitation in the health sector.
As a result, many perish because their cancers are diagnosed when they are at advanced stages hence too late for curative treatment.
Health data shows cancer is the third leading cause of death in Kenya after infectious and cardiovascular diseases.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)