The health department in Kilifi County has sounded an alarm over rising cases of cancers in the area even as the county government launched a cancer center.

According to oncologists at the Kilifi County Referral Hospital (KCRH), at least 10 cases are reported every week from mobile screenings and the number could be higher if more residents turned up for the screening.

“Cancer in Kilifi is on the rise and the most cancers in male is prostate cancer hence males need to be screened for cancer because most of the cases we’re getting here are mostly in stage four which we’re treating as palliative and we would like them to come early so that we can do screening,” said Dr Amina Zuma, an oncology clinician.

She added that cervical and breast cancers which she said that the county had invested heavily in screening equipment and prevention and urged residents to conduct regular screening.

“For females, the most common cancer is cervical cancer and the county has invested a lot in screening HPV and immunization of girls under the age of 10 years,” she said.

According to Dr Zuma, the general public had previously been blind about cancer but the sensitization programs being carried out by the health department and other partners such as the Agha Khan Foundation had made many people turn up for screening.

“We are doing screening at the grassroots level and treating for precancerous lesions and we’re also doing chemotherapy which is being catered by the Social Health Authority (SHA),” she said.

Dr Isaac Wachira, a clinical pharmacist specializing in oncology urged members of the public who have blood relationships in families with a long history of cancer to start early and vigorous screening to help prevent or detect the cancer genes early enough.

“For those people who have a long family history or a strong family history of cancer, from their paternal or maternal sides they need to go for screening and some genes can predispose women to breast cancer but then men to prostate cancer that’s why screening of men above 40 years of age is recommended,” he said.

He also advised Kilifi residents and Kenyans against turning to herbal medicines for cancer treatment saying that those medicines make the situation even worse since they have not been certified for use to treat cancer.

“The drugs that are in conventional use have undergone a rigorous process of drug development, testing for safety and efficacy and so a good deal of patients who leave to go use herbal medication come back to us when the disease has already metastasized and now the goal of treatment changes from a curative intent to palliative intent,” he said.

“Sometime they come when they’re so debilitated that we’re not even able to give them chemotherapy if they were candidates for chemotherapy because if a patient is not able to tolerate the chemotherapy, then we don’t give them hence we end up offering what we call best supportive care and so I would highly recommend against going for herbal medicines and also because most of them damage the liver,” he added.

He emphasized that cancer patients who turn to herbal medicine usually experience liver injury that makes it impossible for anti- cancer drugs to work.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KCRH Dr Gilbert Angore said that the Kilifi cancer center had relieved many cancer patients who had to travel long distances for care.

“Before we endeavored to open a cancer center, we went for capacity building that is training of doctors and nurses in Egypt then we went to our partners like Aga Khan Foundation who helped us put a cancer center here and we have started with outpatient services. We have one specialist stationed at Malindi Sub County hospital who refers patients to Kilifi when they require chemotherapy,” he said.

He added that the hospital has a vision of improving the cancer services and plans are underway to create a special ward, well equipped for cancer patients.

“Once we expand this department, we will have a special ward for cancer patients with special services, special food and personnel to handle them and we are going to train more doctors, clinicians and nurses and recruit more staff,” he said.

For 67-year-old Valentine Katana from Madunguni village in Malindi Sub County, the cancer center came in handy and he has been undergoing services including screening, tests and now he has been put on chemotherapy.

“I realized my cancer at Malindi Sub County hospital and I was referred here in Kilifi and that’s when the process began. I have started the medicine and I pray that I get healed,” he said.