Medical experts in the country have given cancer patients the green light on the usage of nuclear medicine in treatment as a safe, effective, and major milestone in Kenya’s fight against cancer.
The reassurance came through a specialized training forum on the use of nuclear energy for cancer treatment safely held at the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral, and Research Hospital (KUTRRH).
The conference panel comprised the oncologists and nuclear medicine specialists who stressed that nuclear therapy or theranostics is a method that targets the cancerous tumors very accurately while cut down the risk of damage to the normally healthy tissues around the tumor.
Theranostics is a method in which a radioactive agent is injected into cancer cells, and thus the physicians can both image and cure the disease at the same time. Such a procedure, which is done for the very first time at a hospital in Kenya and the entire East Africa region, is a big step in technology for cancer care in the country.
It would normally take a patient about four to six cycles of treatment to be through, Head of Nuclear Medicine at the KUTRRH Molecular Imaging Center, Dr. Harish Nagaraj, informed. Nevertheless, he observed that the issue of cost is still a problem and that each full course of treatment costs an estimated 1.3 million shillings and, therefore, he suggests that the government and donor support make it affordable for the patients.
International atomic energy experts including Dr. Janke Kleynhans and Prof. Jan Zeevaart from South Africa, among others, declared that the practice is in line with worldwide measures and offers cancer patients new hope for better management of the disease, thus reaffirming the safety of nuclear medicine.
KUTRRH expected the launching of nuclear therapy to be able to increase the capacity of Kenya to deal with complicated cases of cancer locally, thus without the patients going for treatment abroad which is quite expensive.
