Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral & Research Hospital (KUTRRH) is in the process of acquiring an additional radiotherapy machine to reduce the waiting period for patients.
Radiation therapy is used to treat cancer and ease cancer symptoms.
The hospital’s board chairperson Olive Mugenda has acknowledged that the hospital currently owns one machine, making the facility experience longer waiting periods due to the high numbers of patients.
Mugenda was responding to a social media user who had brought the problem to her attention, saying his father had to wait for three months to undergo radiotherapy sessions.
“Yes, we are aware of the waiting period because we have one machine. We have been promised a second machine by the government. Working hard to get it,” Mugenda said.
“We are doing three shifts of treatment a day to help shorten the waiting period but numbers are also very high.”
Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy) is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours.
According to the National Cancer Institute, at high doses, radiation therapy kills cancer cells or slows their growth by damaging their DNA.
Cancer cells whose DNA is damaged beyond repair stop dividing or die. When the damaged cells die, they are broken down and removed by the body.
Radiation therapy does not kill cancer cells right away but it takes days or weeks of treatment before DNA is damaged enough for cancer cells to die.
On Wednesday, Mugenda inspected the ongoing construction of the oncology centre extension.
“The current centre has become very busy hence the need for more chemo beds, theatres, doctor consultation rooms, additional oncology private and general wards and pharmacies,” Mugenda said.
When used to treat cancer, radiation therapy can cure cancer, prevent it from returning, or stop or slow its growth.
