Health experts have called on the general public to seek early cancer tests as early detection can help in its treatment. The call comes at a time when cancer is still a problem and yet patients seek medical attention when the cases are in advanced stages.Dr. Neo Tapela a special advisor on Clinical service and Non Communicable Diseases in the Ministry of Health indicated that it is important to train more medical personnel to be able to diagnose cancer. “Much as an operation to remove a tumour is often a first step in cancer treatment, it is in itself not enough, there is always additional radiotherapy or chemotherapy is required to destroy the rest of the cells. To make matters worse, radiotherapy is not yet available because the equipment is very expensive, and the drugs required for chemotherapy are scarce and also costly,” Tapela explained.Cancer is curable if diagnosed early and the right treatment is used.Whereas children have 10 percent chances to get cancer, adults are more vulnerable to infections due to age and change in life style.She decried that lack of specialist in the country saying “some cancer cases that are received in advanced stages need to be tackled in three dimension: using surgery to remove the tumour while others need a surgery with chemotherapy or with radiotherapy and sometimes all the three.“Currently the country cannot afford to centre up a radiotherapy facility because it very expensive. Ranging from structures and the need of a highly trained team of technicians are all very expensive.” Most patients who need radiotherapy are referred to Uganda or Kenya. There are plans by government to build a state of art centre to compliment the Butaro cancer that is slated to be opened soon.Cancer in Rwanda is similar to that in other sub-Saharan Africa. According to statistics from the Rwanda Cancer Registry, in the period 2007-2011, 3294 cancers were registered, 53.8% in women. Stomach cancer (9.6%), lymphoma (9.1%), breast cancer (8.9%), skin cancers (7.1%) and cervical cancer (6.3%) were the five most common cancers. Most cancers were histopathologically diagnosed (52.5%), but clinical investigation (36.3%) also accounted for a high percentage of registrations, with clinical-only diagnoses occurring in 5.8%.700 patients (315 men and 385 women) were registered in the Southern Province alone.
