More women than men are battling cancer in Kenya, data from Nairobi’s Texas Cancer Centre (TCC) shows. Up to 63 per cent of patients treated at the facility from 2014 to 2016 are female, the data showed.
Statistics also show that most female patients were treated for breast and cervical cancer, in that order. For instance, from January to August last year, TCC says it handled 552 breast cancer and 447 cervical cancer patients.
“Breast and cervical cancer, according to our numbers, are the most prominent cancers in Kenya,” says Dr Catherine Nyongesa, the lead oncologist and chief executive at TCC. January is the world’s cervical cancer month and the facility says it has organised cervical cancer walk tomorrow to raise awareness on the disease. The walk has been twinned with free screening thereafter.
The walk will be flagged off from the hospital’s main facility off Mbagathi Road. The procession will circle back to the facility—from Lang’ata Road, to Uhuru Highway, Haile Selassie Avenue, then Moi Avenue, into Kenyatta Avenue towards Valley Road and back into Mbagathi Road.
Participants will be members of the public, cervical cancer survivors and a host of local celebrities. “We aim to screen everyone who will have attended the walk and advise them accordingly,” she said.
While breast cancer is most common cancer among women, cervical is the deadliest; causing more deaths than breast cancer. According to Kenya Demographics Health Survey of 2014, 76 per cent of women know about cervical cancer while only 14 per cent have had a cervical cancer screening.
Among women who have been tested, 62 per cent have had a pap smear, 32 per cent have had visual inspection, and one per cent has had both screening tests. Approximately 3,000 cases of cervical cancer are documented in Kenya every year. Of these about 1,600 never make it through the battle.
