36 patients on Cyberknife waiting list as installation begins

Kenyans will from December have access to a highly sophisticated radiotherapy machine that arrived into the country on Thursday.

Cyberknife, the latest technology that conducts non-invasive treatment for cancerous and non-cancerous tumours, will be housed at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital.

CyberKnife uses advanced technology to track tumours anywhere in the body, with treatments conducted in one to five sessions.

Due to its sophistication, the installation process is expected to take an estimated 60 days as advised by the manufacturer.

The first patient is expected to be treated on December 15 when the machine will be commissioned.

Data from the hospital showed that bookings for cyberknife services had started and 36 patients were on the waiting list by Thursday.

“The hospital has carefully costed the service to ensure that it is affordable to Kenyans, while at the same time ensuring sustainable operationalisation of the facility,” KUTRRH board chairperson Prof Olive Mugenda said. 

The service will be fully funded by NHIF. 

The machine, which was acquired at a cost of Sh675 million, has a capacity to attend to 20 patients per day.  

“The cost of treatment will be about Sh350,000. The good news is that we have talked with NHIF and will be covering the cost of the whole treatment, so even though it sounds expensive it is very cheap compared to outside the country,” Mugenda said.

“The fact that we have been able to bring the cost down to Sh350,000 and the fact that NHIF is going to meet the cost means that we are really supporting the government philosophy of bottom up because it means even the poor will be able to afford.”

As a result of this payment arrangement, no Kenyan will be turned away because of treatment as long as they have the NHIF that is up to date.

The machine's unique robotic design keeps radiation on target even as the tumour moves and can be used as an alternative to surgery or for patients with inoperable or surgically complex tumours.

The machine will be able to get to some organs which experts are not able to get to with the other machines due to its capability to turn around 360 degrees.

Kenya is Africa's second country after Egypt to acquire the machine.

This means patients will no longer be required to travel abroad to look for services, hence saving on cost and providing patients with ease of access to family support during their treatment.

“To address would be incidences of long waiting periods, we have put plans in place to commence at least 10 procedures a day, immediate installation and commissioning is done and scale-up progressively,” the hospital CEO Ahmed Dagane said.

The hospital has a team comprising of radiotherapists, oncologists and medical physicists to commence services once immediate installation is done.

The hospital’s board has allowed an increase in human resource capacity by an additional five specialists to supplement the existing team.

An additional team will be travelling for application training to improve capacity with a team of specialists from the manufacturer (Accuray Inc) being available for on-site training and support.

The Ministry of Health has said a number of cancer-related deaths in the country are as a result of infrastructural and resource limitations.

Many die because their cancers are diagnosed too late.

Health data show cancer is the third leading cause of death in Kenya after infectious and cardiovascular diseases.