NAIROBI, Kenya, May 24 – Pfizer, a leading global biopharmaceutical company, has stressed the importance of early detection and management of the growing breast cancer burden in Kenya.
Speaking during a virtual meeting, Kodjo Soroh, Medical Director of East and Anglo West Africa at Pfizer, said that the company is currently focused on innovating and improving oncology therapies to potentially cure non-communicable diseases like cancer.
“The advantages of early detection of cancer cannot be overemphasized. We must step up efforts to drive regular medical check-ups to facilitate early detection,” Soroh stated.
In Kenya, breast cancer annual incidence currently stands at over 6,700 new cases each year and only 14 percent of women have done a clinical examination while 25 percent have done a self-breast examination according to 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey.
“Unless urgent action is taken to improve breast cancer screening and early diagnosis, breast cancer will compound Kenya’s disease burden, increase poverty and gender inequalities as well as reverse current gains against maternal mortality,” Dr. Angela McLigeyo, a Medical Oncologist, said.
Njoki Njiraini, a clinical radiation oncologist, remarked that awareness should run throughout the year apart from the month of October.
And awareness is necessary to educate people on why it is important and as well as train healthcare providers on practicing mammography and information about breast cancer.
“In breast cancer diagnosis, timeliness of the service to avoid excessive delay, availability of diagnostic imaging studies of the breast and axilla, staging studies to detect metastatic disease and tissue sampling methods are important,” Dr Njoki Njiraini said.
According to the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN), Breast
Cancer is the leading type of cancer incidence in Kenya accounting for 16.1% of all cancers and is the second leading cause of deaths in the country.
Data from the Kenya National Cancer Registry 2014-2019 shows that 7 out of 10 cancers are diagnosed at advanced stages despite early detection, timely diagnosis and effective treatment of early-stage tumors being the cornerstone of breast cancer control to improve survival rates.
