Hospitals to report new cancer cases

Hospitals have six days to start reporting new cancer cases to the National Cancer Institute of Kenya as the Ministry of Health seeks to collect accurate numbers on the disease and see the extent of its burden in different parts of the country.

Kenya has been relying on estimates showing that deaths from the disease have risen to 32,987 every year and those newly diagnosed with the disease stand at 47,887, the Health ministry data shows.

 “The Institute notifies healthcare providers that beginning of 1st September 2021, they will be required, within 60 days of making a cancer diagnosis to make notification to the NCI-Kenya, for purposes of maintaining the National Cancer Registry,” Mutahi Kagwe, the Health Secretary said in a public notice.

David Makumi, the vice-chairman of Non-communicable Diseases Alliance Kenya said even the small private clinics seeing three or two cancer patients will now be required by law to report a cancer diagnosis or face punitive measures.

Doctors and hospitals that fail to inform the NCI-K of cancer cases face a fine not exceeding Sh200,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both, according to the Cancer Prevention and Control Act 2012.

“We need the data for planning purposes. Treasury will not allocate adequate money for cancer without accurate numbers. We want to know the exact cancer types that Kenyans get, if it’s breast cancer, which sub-type, number of oncologists and nurses to train, where to build regional cancer centres instead of politicians overpromising cancer hospitals all over, even in areas with no burden,” Mr Makumi said, adding that with good data, the government will also be able to know cancer prevalence per county.

Without accurate data, it has become hard to push for mass screening and vaccination of the most affected groups, identify environmental risk factors or high-risk behaviours in certain counties, and train more specialists in specific areas of cancer care.

For instance, there are very few hospitals that do endoscopy procedures, tests to find out if a patient has cancer of the oesophagus, yet the disease is the second common cancer in Kenyan men, and it is the top-most cancer found in patients at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, which serves the Western Kenya region.

“The very few hospitals that have the endoscopy equipment, have outdated ones and must incur constant repair costs,” said Dr Michael Mwachiro, a surgeon and Head of Endoscopy Unit at Tenwek Hospital, at a recent cancer conference on screening and early detection for low, middle-income countries.

“With accurate data, individuals living in high-risk areas can get a one-time screening endoscopy test at the age of 40, even if they have no symptoms,” Dr Mwachiro said, reducing cases of patients going to hospital when the disease has advanced.

The health care providers will input the data in a web-based National Cancer Registry portal from a computer or smart mobile device from any location in Kenya.

“From the data, we will tell if Kenyans are getting preventable cancers caused by tobacco or alcohol then put more efforts on tobacco and alcohol control. Or the burden of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers to push for more vaccines? Mr Makumi said.