The Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) management has indicated that they are expediting processes to complete the establishment of a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) centre to improve cancer diagnosis and survival rate in the country.
A PET scan reveals how body organs and cells are functioning, making it easy for medical experts to detect microscopic (tiny) abnormalities like cancer cells that other technologies like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans may not or cannot detect.
Dr Nixon Niyonzima, the UCI head of research and training, told this publication that they expect PET scan services to be available to Ugandans by December.
‘The PET bunker is ready, and the machine is actually being shipped,’ he said.
A bunker is a heavily shielded, custom-built room designed to entirely contain high levels of radiation or the room housing a medical cyclotron.
A cyclotron is a particle accelerator used to manufacture the short-lived radioactive isotopes -unstable chemical element that releases radiation as it breaks down to become stable.
The isotopes are required for diagnostic scans, like PET scans, according to cancer doctors.
‘Government has provided funding for the equipment and the bunkers ,’ Dr Niyonzima said.
He was commenting on the mounting public concern about the delays for the country to have the machine in the country despite the large numbers of cancer deaths in the country.
Growing concern
This concern has increased following reports that the late Omukama (King) Oyo Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV of Tooro Kingdom had to travel to Nairobi to access a PET scan, technology absent in Uganda, after months of misdirected care in Kampala’s top private hospitals left his aggressive cancer undetected.
The concern about the lack of the PET machine became a major national issue in 2022 after the death of Parliament Speaker Jacob Oulanyah.
Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, then Minister of Health, told Parliament in April 2022 that the procurement of the PET machine was on course.
‘This financial year, Parliament appropriated Shs45b to procure a PET scan for the Uganda Cancer Institute and the contract was signed yesterday. So, we shall have a PET scan,’ Dr Aceng said.
She noted then that Parliament also appropriated money to construct a nuclear medicine unit that will house the PET scan and a linear accelerator, including the type that late Oulanyah was seeking in Seattle, USA.
Dr Niyonzima, in an interview with the Daily Monitor on Sunday, explained why the establishment of this has delayed.
‘Part of the delays were the need for a cyclotron to produce the radio-isotopes also now under construction. This is also fully funded now.’
‘However, in 2020 the priority was radiotherapy. Although funding was provided, we had one radiotherapy machine at that time,’ he added.
Data from UCI and the World Health Organisation indicates that around 35,968 people develop cancer every year in Uganda and about 24,629 die, with the majority dying without getting the right diagnosis or treatment.