OVER 40,000 NEW CASES OF CANCER RECORDED, DEATHS TO DOUBLE – REPORT
Kenya recorded over 40,000 new cases of cancer in the year 2020, a new report has revealed.
A report launched by the National Cancer Institute also revealed that there were over 27,000 number of deaths caused by cancer and more than 82,000 prevalent cases.
Out of the 42,116 cases, breast cancer was the highest with 6, 799 followed by cervical cancer at 5,236 then prostate cancer at 3,412, oesophagus cancer was fourth with 2,974 and colerectum cancer at fifth place with 2724 cases.
All other forms of cancer according to the report were 20, 971
The National Cancer Institute of Kenya has warned that cancer cases are projected to double in Africa, Kenya included.
The report launched today states that contrary to other continents where cases are being slowed down, cancer cases in Kenya and Africa are spreading fast.
“The bad news is that when we look at the period 2020 to 2040 and that’s only 20 years and we make projections, we find that the incidents of cancer and deaths are projected to rise the fastest on the continent in Africa. As others are slowing it down, our cases are rising much faster than elsewhere in the world,” said NCI Kenya CEO Alfred Karagu.
“In fact we project that if we do not take firm action on this continent, then the burden in cases and deaths will double by the year 2040,” said Karagu.
The number of new cancer cases among females almost doubled that of their male counterparts with the number of recorded cases being 26,550 and 15,566 respectively.
Breast cancer was the highest type of cancer among females while prostate cancer was higher on the male counterparts.
