Wellness & Fitness

Nairobi West Hospital to open new cancer centre

SAINI

Dr Prakash Saini, critical care physician and clinical co-ordinator at the Oncology department at Nairobi West Hospital during the interview. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NMG

Nairobi West Hospital is set to open a cancer centre kitted with a new technology radiotherapy machine that is faster, quieter and more comfortable for patients.

The Halcyon radiotherapy machine, which resembles MRI scanners, takes just half an hour to power up, uses image guidance to accurately target tumours and treatment takes a matter of minutes.

“This machine offers image guided therapy, which means that it reduces high doses of radiation for the patient since they spend only two minutes inside,” said Dr Prakash Saini, the clinical co-ordinator of the Oncology department.

He said that since the machine targets the precise location of the tumour and zeros in it there is less likelihood that a patients’ other organs will be affected.

“It is well suited to handle the majority of cancer patients, offering advanced treatments for prostate, breast, head and neck, and many other forms of cancer. For example, when a patient is treated for cervical cancer no other organ is radiated owing to the modified intensity of the therapy,” he said.

Side effects of treatment are also far milder than they used to be with older machines and the Halcyon’s are far more efficient, taking less time and fewer steps to deliver a dose of radiation and target cancerous cells.

It is hoped that these machines and the centralisation of cancer treatment at the hospital will improve efficiency of the cancer treatment in the country as well as patient experience.

Tina Saini, the Head of Operations at the hospital said that the hospital would offer services at the same rates as other facilities with no hidden costs.

“We are not looking to recover our costs what we want is to have the right cancer care options for Kenyans. We are targeting what is paid in most hospitals but for a more superior product,” she said.

Halcyon features a streamlined workflow that only requires nine steps from the start to the end of treatment compared to up to more than 30 steps with older technologies.

In its Globocan 2018 report, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that 47,887 Kenyans get cancer every year and 32,987 die from the disease.

The most common is breast cancer with 5,985 women and men diagnosed every year compared to 2,864 prostate cases.

The report further showed that oesophagus cancer has become the top killer in Kenya, claiming 4,354 lives every year and overtaking cervix, breast, stomach and prostate cancer.

More Kenyan women die from cancer than men, the WHO agency said. The disease claims 18,772 women in Kenya annually compared to 14,215 men. Globally, most people die from lung cancer, which is linked to smoking, followed by colorectal, liver and breast types.