By EMILY KUWEMA –

ON February 4, 2023, the world commemorated the ‘World Cancer Day and International Childhood Cancer Day’ under a three-year campaign theme dubbed “Close the Care Gap”.
Like the rest of the world, Zambia was one of the countries that took part in the commemoration.
During the commemoration, World Health Organisation (WHO) country representative Nathan Bakyaita disclosed that Africa records about 1.1 million new cancer cases and about 700, 000 of those die every year.
Meanwhile, the Cancer Registry in Zambia indicates that over 13,800 new cases are diagnosed every year, with about 8,000 patients following up on treatment.
University Teaching Hospital (UTH) alone records 3, 000 new cases every year.
Dr Bakyaita also said cancer was one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide as statistics show that 70 per cent of deaths occurred due to cancers in low and middle income countries where Zambia fits in.
Cancer is a disease in which some body cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body.
However, early detection of this disease allows doctors to treat the abnormally developed cells before they can spread to other parts of the body, creating a high chance of survival.
Therefore, the government, through the Ministry of Health, has called on the public to regularly get screened for cancer to reduce the increasing number of cancer patients in the country.
Gertrude Sakala, a cervical cancer survivor of Chipata district in the Eastern Province, has encouraged her fellow women to get screened every now and then instead of going to see witchdoctors whenever they fell ill.
“I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2019 after I experienced a backache. When I went to a local clinic, the doctor screened me and found that I had cancer and was transferred to the UTH in Lusaka for treatment,” Ms Sakala said.
“When I got to UTH, the doctors were kind and put me on treatment after one week. I was in hospital for two months. As we speak, I am perfectly fine because the cancer was detected early,” Ms Sakala said.
To officiate at the commemoration, Health Minister Sylvia Masebo noted that approximately 30 per cent of cancers could be prevented by avoiding or controlling lifestyles that were known to cause cancer.
She added that 40 per cent of cancers were curable for as long as cancer they were diagnosed early.
“This year’s commemoration marks the beginning of a three -year ‘Close the Care Gap’ global campaign which brings to the fore an understanding and recognition of the inequalities in cancer care around the globe,” Ms Masebo said.
She said the campaign theme was looking at facts such as barriers experienced by people who sought cancer care at every point of care, the barriers being income, education, location and discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, age, disability and lifestyle.
Ms Masebo said the theme emphasised the need for governments, partners, civil society organisations and individuals to harness and mobilise solutions to catalyse positive change in cancer care.
She said the theme was in line with the Ministry of Health’s transformative agenda which integrated health promotion, prevention of diseases, early diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitative and palliative health care services in the fight against cancer, as close to the people as possible and leaving no one behind.
The minister said the New Dawn government was committed to improving access to cancer care by ensuring enhanced equipment of the Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH) with new radiotherapy equipment and procurement of cancer medicines.
The government had also advanced plans to decentralise cancer services to the rest of the country with two new cancer treatment centres planned for construction; one on the Copperbelt and the other in Southern Province.
When established, the centres would significantly improve access to cancer care services in Zambia as poor access to these medical services led to disability and premature death and had a significant impact on national productivity.
“The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates that one in five people develop cancer in their lifetime. Ageing populations globally, health care inequalities and socio-economic risk factors remain among the primary factors driving the increase in cancer cases,” Ms Masebo said.
“It is believed that over 80 per cent of the childhood cancers occur in the low and middle income countries where there are none or limited childhood cancer registries. In Zambia today, we are seeing an increasing number of children with cancer averaging about 200 new cases per year seen at the Cancer Diseases Hospital,” Ms Masebo said.
In Zambia, the commonest childhood cancers include leukaemia (cancer of the blood), Kaposi’s sarcoma (cancer of the skin), nephroblastoma (cancer of the kidney) and retinoblastoma (cancer of the eye).
Ms Masebo said childhood cancers were generally not prevented through screening.
Therefore, improving outcomes for children with cancer required early and accurate diagnosis followed by effective treatment.
She said remarkable advances had been made in the treatment of childhood cancer in Zambia because currently, about 20 per cent of children with cancer survived and government was set to ensure that over the next five years 60 per cent survived.
However, this would require concerted efforts from all players charged with the responsibility of diagnosing and treating children with cancer.
Ms Masebo commended WHO and other partners for their support in improving treatment outcomes and survival of cancer patients in Zambia as it was one of the three priority countries for the Global Childhood Cancer Initiative in the African region supported by the organisation.
She said there had been collaborative work initiated with Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital through the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Ministry of Health and CDH).
This had made CDH a global alliance member of St Jude Global.
The St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the USA is a leading institution in childhood cancer treatment and research and also the WHO technical advisor on childhood cancer.
Through this collaboration, the Ministry of Health had completed the National Cancer Control Strategic Plan 2022 to 2026 and had included a chapter on childhood cancer control as the strategy aimed at not only diagnosis and treatment but was also a resource mobilisation tool.
Cervical screening services were now available in 310 health facilities across the country with 112 districts providing cervical cancer screening out of 116 districts representing 96 per cent coverage at district level.
For the first time, over 300,000 women were screened in 2022.
Dr Bakyaita disclosed during the commemoration that most common cancers increase in adults include breast, cervical, prostate and liver cancer which contributed to nearly half of the new cancer cases.
Dr Bakyaita said data showed that there would be an increase in cancer deaths to 1000,000 per year by 2030 if urgent and broad interventions were not taken.
He recommended that there was need to have population-based cancer treatment, enhance health promotion and ensure cancer services were available at primary level to improve diagnostic treatment.