Breast cancer patients in Kenya are set to benefit from an immunohistochemistry analyzer, which is a diagnostic machine for advanced screening and treatment.
These machines have been donated to the main referral hospital Kenyatta National Hospital by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche. The same machine will also be installed at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. This machine is meant to complement efforts so as to improve timely screening and treatment of breast cancer.
Immunohistochemistry analysis is a method of detecting the presence and location of proteins in tissue sections, and is useful in tracking the progress and treatment of diseases like cancer.
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The Health Secretary Cleopa Mailu stated that the equipment is able to show specific markers for breast cancer hence proper medication, which is available, is administered to patients adding that it also shows other markers for other cancers hence making diagnosis timely and more accurate.
The diagnosis machines will now ensure that there are timely and precise diagnostic services that are more effective. These equipments come in handy at a period when a big number of women in the country are being diagnosed with breast cancer when the disease has already spread too far thus being too late to prevent and treat it.
Breast cancer remains the leading cancer type among Kenyan women with more than 50 per cent of the cases presenting in women below the age of 50. Over 4,500 breast cancer patients are diagnosed with the disease annually. Two thousand breast cancer patients lose their lives to the disease every year.