Pretoria - The new state-of-the-art prostate cancer facility currently under construction at Steve Biko Academic Hospital received a thumbs up from the ministry of Health.
This came after the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, together with the EU Commissioner of Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, and University of Pretoria vice-chancellor Tawana Kupe, recently conducted a site-visit at the Pretoria facility.
The initiative emanated from the collaboration between the University of Pretoria and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre conceptualised in 2017 to offer prostate cancer services to South African patients.
In South Africa, prostate cancer is one of the top five cancers reported among men. However, more than 300 South African prostate cancer patients have been successfully treated with the Targeted Alpha Therapy through this collaboration.
The treatment is offered to patients through compassionate use and improved protocols.
According to the university, other joint studies will lead to the development of targeted alpha therapy for other types of cancers with particular focus on breast cancer.
A proud Dhlomo said: “As government, this should indeed signal an important era of collaboration with our European Commission counterparts to enhance research in healthcare as we jointly endeavour to ‘leave no one behind’.”
Dhlomo also took a moment to thank the team of Steve Biko Academic Hospital for the “commendable research work they have under-taken over the past years in the area of nuclear medicine”.
“It is quite encouraging to see how this practice has evolved over the years to play an increasingly important role in therapeutics as well. Today, I am informed, that there is a new area of radiation medicine called theranostics which engulfs both diagnostic and therapeutic use of nuclear medicine.
“As a country we continue to experience a quadruple burden of diseases including high burden of HIV and Aids, TB, as well as a rapidly increasing burden of non-communicable diseases of which cancer is a high priority. Nuclear medicine plays a critical role in enhancing our response to our complex burden of disease.
The national cancer registry report of 2018 reports that, top five cancers in men are prostate (25.29%), colorectal (5.63%), lung (4.01%), non hodgkin lymphoma (3.2%) and melanoma (2.74%).
In women it is breast cancer, (23.22%), cervix (15.85%), colorectal (4.46%), uterus (3.6%) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (2.55%).
“As we aim to create equity in access to care among all our communities, the government has an obligation not only to ensure implementation of preventive strategies where applicable, but also to create access to early detection as well as appropriate and timeous treatment of cancers to improve our survival rates.
“It is also necessary for us to recognise the need for research and innovation. I firmly believe that creating basic access to diagnosis and treatment can co-exist with our endeavour to be innovative,” Dhlomo added.
Pretoria News