The National Cancer Institute has identified the Coast and Nairobi regions as having a high prevalence of breast cancer.
Overall, breast, cervical, prostate, esophagus and non-Hodgkins lymphoma are the five top cancers in the country.
NCI chief executive officer Alfred Karagu said these five cancers account for nearly half (48 per cent) of the cancer burden in the country.
Cervical and breast cancers contribute to almost a quarter (23 per cent) of all cancer-related deaths in the country.
“In terms of geographical distribution, you will find that breast cancer is sort of uniformly distributed across the country but there are particular regions that have shown high levels of prevalence of cases,” Karagu said.
“The Coast region has shown quite high cases of breast cancer and Nairobi so we have seen fairly urban regions reporting a high prevalence of breast cancer.”
Karagu said science has shown a correlation between cervical cancer and certain conditions, particularly HIV with the information from the national cancer registry showing high rates of cervical cancer among populations in the Nyanza and Western region and Nairobi.
“We are part of the esophageal cancer belt which runs across several countries; Kenya, Tanzania Malawi and Zambia. In our case we have seen quite a high clustering of cases, particularly in the Rift region and the South Rift with the likes of Bomet and Kericho,” he said.
The CEO said there have also been clusters of esophageal cancers in the Northern parts of Kenya such as Garissa, Marsabit and the Upper Eastern.
Currently, two out of every three persons diagnosed with cancer will die of the disease since 70 per cent of cases are diagnosed in advanced stages, when a cure is impossible.
Despite the high burden, only about 23 per cent of Kenyans have access to cancer management services.
