Agency
The Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) has called for more research to understand the increasing prevalence of cancer in Northern Uganda.
UCI Executive Director Dr. Jackson Orem said the facility receives between seven and eight thousand newly diagnosed cases each year in addition to the over 36,000 revisits but the Northern region accounts for the highest.
Orem says the Northern region is followed by the Eastern and then the Western region in terms of cases, a reason why they decided to set up a regional cancer centre in Gulu.
Orem notes that liver cancer is most common in northern Uganda considering the prevalence of hepatitis B in the region and the fact, that many homesteads poorly store grains which leads to eating food laced with aflatoxins.
Worse, experts at the UCI say because people turn up late, 80% of those who get diagnosed each year die within the first year of being discovered.
Meanwhile, the UCI has started a programme to extend screening services to the community.
Early this month, the facility conducted medical camps which saw a lot of people turning up for the very first time.
Generally however, among men, prostate cancer is the most common, followed by oesophagal cancers and Kaposi sarcoma affected by those living with HIV. Among women, the commonest are cervical, followed by breast and stomach cancer.
