Support me to Fight Cancer in Uganda; with your support, it can be done, and it WILL be done

Pilot Project to Collect National Cancer Status Data in Uganda

This summer, I will be volunteering with UCRF to work on the Cancer Survey Project.  The Cancer Survey Project is part of UCRF's Research and Education Section's Plan to obtain accurate cancer data for Uganda.

Accurate data about disease incidence (new cases) and prevalence (existing cases) are vital for planning public health programs, especially for cancer. Data are sparse on cancer incidence and prevalence in Uganda, hampering the design and delivery of health education messages that stress risk factors, early detection or prevention, and the planning for treatment of cancer in the face of scarce health resources.

A historical cancer survey conducted in the 1960s (Templeton and Hutt, 1973) demonstrated that cancer diagnosis, although seeming to be incomplete, it was not uncommon. Risk for cancer increased with age, but cancers diagnosed appeared to be different by geography. For example, stomach and oesophageal cancer appeared more frequent in the Western regions, penile cancer more frequent in Buganda, and Burkitt lymphoma and Kaposi sarcoma more frequent in West Nile than elsewhere. These differences were due to differences in access to care and to some risk factors for cancer being common in some but not other areas. No cancer survey has been conducted in Uganda since.

Contemporary cancer data comes from the Kyaddondo County Registry, based at Makerere College of Health Sciences, but this covers only 3% of Uganda’s population in Kampala District and parts of Wakiso and Mpigi districts (Wabinga, 1993), and is not nationally representative. Nationally representative data are needed to inform policy and public health efforts.

UCRF will conduct a National Cancer Status Survey for cancers diagnosed over the past 2-5 years at regional and district centres in three regions of Uganda, excluding the central region, which is covered by the Kyaddondo Cancer Registry. The survey will provide base-line data and demonstrate feasibility a Cancer Surveillance Program in Uganda. The survey will take 4-8 weeks during summer and will be the basis for a preliminary Uganda Cancer Status Report.

Cancer in Uganda

Young child who is suffering from Burkitts Lymphoma, one of the most common childhood cancers in Uganda


It may be hard to believe that cancer can be a major problem in countries with high rates of infant mortality, malnutrition and infectious diseases. However, recent research has revealed that nothing could be farther from the truth. Cancer is increasingly common among African children and adults alike. 

This has been compounded by the exponential spread of HIV over the past few decades. The rates of some cancers have increased substantially in many African regions since the start of the HIV epidemic. I will discuss the relationship between HIV infection and cancer in another post. 
 

Although significant resources have been applied to combating HIV, malaria, TB, poverty and malnutrition, little has been done to explore or address the problem of cancer in Africa. This is especially evident East African. Uganda, for example has a population of over 31 million people and only two practising oncologists. Contrast this with my home town Aberdeen which has a population of about 250,000 people and two appointed oncologists (data from RCP London, click here). Uganda's 2 oncologists do not have the time to collect data about cancer diagnosed by non-specialist doctors.  UCRF will meet this need with the help of volunteers, a team that I will be joining this summer. I have a love for this challenging work because it will involve reviewing papers, which I hope will have an added benefit of highlighting the value of keeping accurate records.

As a consequence, even patients with curable cancers go untreated. This is due to a combination of their inability to afford diagnostic tests, basic chemotherapy or even pain-relieving medications and a scarcity of both human and medical resources. This not only causes an inordinate amount of individual suffering but also is an increasing burden on society.

take a moment to think about this, if you want to help scroll down to the bottom of my page and please make a donation.

For more information about cancer and a link to where some of the statistics came from please click here

My Summer Project 2010

This summer, I will be visiting Uganda to volunteer with the Uganda Cancer Research Foundation (UCRF). Over the next few months I am going to do a lot of fundraising in order to raise £2000 for both my trip and UCRF. I am going to use this blog to raise awareness of UCRF and to keep everybody up to date with my fundraising endeavour.

For more information about UCRF visit their website: http://www.ucrfcares.org/

In my next post I will give more details about my project and will include ways that you can help me reach my £2000 fundraising target.