Miriam Mutebi, Breast Surgical Oncologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Aga Khan University Hospital, shared on LinkedIn:
“If you work in cancer care in Africa, this number should stop you: 8%.
That is Africa’s contribution to global cancer research, despite carrying one of the fastest-growing cancer burdens in the world.
Here is what that gap means in practice.
The drugs transforming cancer treatment globally were largely developed without African populations, so we do not fully know how they perform for African patients.
The cancers that affect us most: cervical cancer and prostate cancer, are among the least studied. And the barriers that keep patients from care (language, culture, financial toxicity, fragmented systems) are barely represented in research at all.
In many communities across Africa, cancer is described as ‘the wound that doesn’t heal’ or ‘the thing that will kill you.’
That language alone tells us exactly why patients often delay seeking care, why they may discontinue treatment midway, and why early detection campaigns often keep falling short.
Until we study those realities contextually, with African researchers asking African questions, we will keep designing solutions for patients who do not exist.
The countries making the greatest progress share one thing: strong domestic funding for research.
In 2012, African Union (AU) member states committed to dedicating 1% of GDP to research and development. That commitment, if honoured and directed well, could change everything.
The momentum is real.
Nigeria is conducting three immunotherapy clinical studies for the first time. Pooled procurement is beginning to move beyond a theoretical concept. More African investigators are entering the research pipeline.
But let me be direct:
Patients do not experience research. They experience systems.
Every study conducted, every paper published, every conference attended only matters if it ultimately strengthens the system a patient walks into when she finds a lump, when she gets a diagnosis, when she needs treatment she cannot afford.
That is the standard we should be holding ourselves to.”
Other articles featuring Miriam Mutebi on OncoDaily.
