Fight cancer in Africa

Cancer should never be a death sentence because of where you live. Yet in Ethiopia, a country with a single cancer center for 100 million people, the disease is almost always fatal and causes more stigma around cancer than HIV / AIDS.

Each year, about 750,000 sub-Saharan Africans develop cancer and more than half a million die of it. The number of new cancer cases is expected to increase to more than one million each year in the next five years in the region.

Due to the limited availability of screening, laboratories, pathologists and oncologists, cancers diagnosed in Africa have a much higher mortality rate than in other parts of the world. Without diagnosis, clinicians are unable to effectively screen for cancer, diagnose the disease, and develop care plans.

As a result, the majority of cancer patients are undiagnosed until they have reached an advanced stage that is not curable, doing palliative care, when they exist, the only option. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa simply lack staff, training, resources and infrastructure to cope with the cancer challenge.

By the end of 2017, our three organizations (American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), American Cancer Society (ACS) and Novartis) have joined forces to build the capacity of front-line health care providers, in addition already underway in the field to improve access to cancer. diagnosis and treatment in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi.

The ASCP program enhances immunohistochemical badysis capabilities in seven hospital laboratories and ACS provides training in the treatment of biopsy specimens and the administration of chemotherapy. Novartis funding supports this work to help build the infrastructure needed to improve treatment outcomes in these countries. Together, ACS and ASCP trained more than 80 health care workers in diagnostic laboratories and facilities administering chemotherapy care in 2018.

This is one of many positive examples of organizations that bring together different sectors to meet a major global public health challenge. We can also build on the very successful efforts in the fight against infectious diseases, such as HIV, which have provided a winning model for early detection and treatment for people in hard-to-reach places. We can and should do the same for cancer.

People with cancer in Africa are speechless and die silently. The disease contributes to considerable human suffering, which is generally not reported. The Ebola outbreak, which claimed the lives of 11,000 people, hit the headlines for weeks, while cancer kills nearly 500,000 Africans each year and is ignored by the media.

The global health community needs to come together and advocate on behalf of cancer patients. Let us work together so that cancer is no longer a death sentence in Africa.
Meg O'Brien, Danny A. Milner
and Harald Nusser.
United States

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Every 4 February, World Cancer Day celebrates cancer and promotes its prevention, early detection and treatment. Each year, the day is marked by a different theme and the theme for 2019 is "I am and I will do it". The estimated number of cancer deaths in 2018 was 9.5 million, or 26,000 deaths per day.

This number is expected to increase with increasing environmental stress, degradation of air quality, lifestyle and eating habits.

The theme "I can, we can" recognizes that everyone has the ability to fight the burden of cancer. We can work together to reduce the risk factors for cancer. We can overcome barriers to early diagnosis, treatment and palliative care. We can work together to improve the fight against cancer and achieve the global goals of reducing premature mortality from cancer. There is not a single telltale sign of your cancer.
However, cancer can cause many different symptoms, such as colds or flu, but it can also be a potential symptom of lung cancer, as well as warning signals such as chest pain, loss of weight, hoarseness, fatigue and shortness of breath.

Consult your doctor if you can not seem to get rid of it, especially if you smoke. In addition, extreme fatigue is one of the most common cancer symptoms. We are not talking here about a type of normal tiredness; it is exhaustion that does not disappear.

When your temperature goes up, it usually indicates that you have an infection. But some cancers, including lymphoma, leukemia and kidney and liver cancers may also contribute. Cancer fevers increase and decrease often during the day and sometimes reach their maximum at the same time.

Most often, these symptoms are not due to cancer. They can also be caused by benign tumors or other problems. If your symptoms last for a few weeks, it is important to consult a doctor so that problems can be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.
Derrick Majanga,
Kampala