Dr Mwesigye says the surgical camp will address a range of cancers affecting the urinary tract and male reproductive system which includes prostate cancer, kidney cancer, penile cancer, urethral cancer, and bladder cancer.
30 cancer patients from
across the country will benefit from high-cost urological cancer surgeries for
free from the Northern Uganda Regional Cancer in Gulu City.
The four-day surgical camp commenced
on Monday and will provide targeted surgeries, medical expertise and patient-centred
care to individuals battling cancer of the urinary tract and male reproductive
system.
It is organized by theUganda Cancer Institute (UCI) with
its team of uro-oncology surgeons and those from the University of California,
San Francisco (UCSF) in the United States of America.
Dr Benjamin Mwesige, Head of Research
at UCI told Uganda Radio Network Monday that the Uro-oncology surgical camp is
the first of its kind being hosted by UCI since its establishment.
Dr Mwesigye says the surgical
camp will address a range of cancers affecting the urinary tract and male
reproductive system which includes prostate cancer, kidney cancer, penile
cancer, urethral cancer, and bladder cancer.
He says the essence of the
surgical camp is to address the complex urological cancer surgery and also
enable the transfer of surgical skills from the uro-oncology surgeons from the United
States of America to the UCI team.
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Dr Mwesigye says while the cost
of the surgeries being conducted is complex and expensive, they will be offered
free of charge to the patients.
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Dr Henry Dabanja, a consultant
urologist and Head Oncology Department at UCI says urological cancers currently
remain the biggest cancer burden at UCI in terms of cost of treatment.
He particularly notes that the
cost of treating prostate cancer at UCI by the government is higher than any
other cancer disease. Monthly according to Dabanja, the government spends a minimum
of 2 million shillings on drugs for a patient with prostate cancer which is
higher than any other cancer disease in the country.
For instance, Zoladex medication
costs in the open market cost 800,000 shillings for every three months while a
dose of Abiraterone costs 1.2 million shillings.
According to Dabanja, the
surgical camp comes as a blessing as it will help reduce the cost of treatment through
surgeries and skills transfer to the UCI surgeons.
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Prostate cancer remains the
second most common cancer among men in Uganda with over 8,000 registered
according to UCI. The exact cause of
prostate cancer is not known but scientists say the disease is genetically inherited.
Dr Dabanja emphasized the need
for men 40 years of age and above to start early screening for prostate
cancer to avoid late detection especially those whose family members have had a
prostate who are already predisposed to the disease.
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The Northern Regional Cancer
Center was constructed for 7.5 million shillings and intended to bridge the gap
in treating patients with cancer. It opened its doors in June 2023 and since
then, a total of 455 clients have accessed the facility.
Wilfred Dranimma, a senior
nursing officer at the centre says a total of 295 different types of cancer
have so far been diagnosed from the regional centre from July 2023 to June
2024. The centre also opened its door to inpatient admission in August this
year.
