Uganda Cancer Institute

Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) is a public, specialized, tertiary care medical facility owned by the Uganda Ministry of Health. The facility is located along Upper Mulago Hill Road, on Mulago Hill, in the Kawempe Division of Kampala, about 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) north of the central business district of the city.[2] The geographical coordinates of the institute are: 00°20'29.0"N, 32°34'40.0"E (Latitude:0.341389; Longitude:32.577778).[3]

Uganda Cancer Institute
Uganda Ministry of Health & Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Geography
LocationMulago, Kampala, Central Region, Uganda
Coordinates00°20′29″N 32°34′40″E
Organisation
Care systemPublic
TypeCancer Treatment, Research and Teaching
Services
Beds80[1]
History
Opened1967 (1967)
Links
WebsiteHomepage
Other linksList of hospitals in Uganda
Medical education in Uganda

Overview

UCI is a cancer treatment, research, and teaching center, affiliated with the Makerere University School of Medicine and with the Mulago National Referral Hospital, the teaching hospital for the medical school. UCI maintains an inpatient facility with a capacity of 80 beds.[1] It attends to an average of about 200 patients daily.[4]

In October 2011, ground was broken for a three-story, integrated cancer training and treatment facility, measuring nearly 60,000 square feet (5,600 m2). The new building, called the "Uganda Cancer Institute/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Clinic and Training Institute", is a project of the UCI/Hutchinson Center Cancer Alliance, a collaboration of UCI and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, USA. In May 2015, the completed facility opened and began attending to patients.[5][6]

History

UCI was founded in 1967 with twenty beds, as the Lymphoma Treatment Center, to treat childhood lymphomas, predominantly Burkitt's lymphoma, the most common childhood lymphoma in Uganda and endemic to tropical Africa.[7] In 1969, UCI expanded to a total of 40 beds, when the Solid Tumor Center was added to focus research on Kaposi's sarcoma and liver cancer.[8] "During the 1960s and early 1970s, UCI was a leading international medical research center, in its areas of specialization. UCI established collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland."[9]

In 1972, following the expulsion of Ugandan Asians by dictator Idi Amin, nearly all of NCI's scientists left.[8] "Professor Charles Olweny, a Uganda researcher, interrupted his studies at NCI in the USA and returned to become the first Ugandan director of UCI. In 1982, following the overthrow of Idi Amin, Olweny was forced to leave Uganda for security reasons, leaving leadership of UCI in the hands of Professor Edward Katongole-Mbidde. When Katongole-Mbidde left UCI to become the director at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in 1995, Dr. Jackson Orem took over the helm at UCI.[9] Between 2011 and 2015, the bed capacity at the institute was increased to 80.[1]

International collaboration

The international research centers with collaborative projects with Uganda Cancer Institute include, but are not limited to the following:

  1. National Cancer Institute - Bethesda, Maryland, USA
  2. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center - Seattle, Washington, USA
  3. Case Western Reserve University - Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Brachytherapy

In 2016, the institute installed a "Flexitron Cobalt-60 High Dose Rate" brachytherapy system from Elekta. The system is part of a two-year renovation plan that UCI is implementing at a cost of US$49 million.[10]

Teletherapy

In March 2016, the "Cobalt-60 Teletherapy" unit at UCI, which had been in use for the previous 20 years, broke down. Efforts to acquire a replacement unit are underway, with installation expected in 2018.[11][12] In the interim, the Uganda Ministry of Health has arranged with the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, to offer teletherapy to some Ugandan patients.[13]

A brand new teletherapy machine, manufactured in the Czech Republic, arrived in Uganda in August 2017. The machine was purchased at a cost of €642,000 (more than UShs2.7 billion), contributed by the government of Uganda and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It is expected that installation of the new machine will take at least one month.[14] Following installation and testing of the new machine, the institution started treating patients using the new telepathy machine on 4 December 2017 and officially commissioned it on 19 January 2018.[15][16]

In February 2020, UCI commissioned a new Bhabhatron II Cancer Therapy Machine, donated to Uganda by the government of India. This machine, which also uses Cobalt 60 as the source of radiation will supplement the one acquired 2 years earlier from the Czech Republic. The new unit was installed by Indian technicians. A group of Ugandan oncologists and technicians were earlier sent to India to train on how to operate the new machine. Also in 2018, Samta Memorial Foundation, an Indian-based non-government organization donated a mobile mammography unit that is now in use at UCI.[17]

Medical directors of UCI

The following medical researchers have served as director of UCI since its founding in 1967:

  1. John Ziegler - American: 1967-1972
  2. Charles Olweny - Ugandan: 1972-1982
  3. Edward Katongole-Mbidde - Ugandan: 1982-1995
  4. Jackson Orem - Ugandan: 1995–Present

See also

References
  1. Ainebyona, Emmanuel (22 May 2015). "Museveni launches state-of-the-art cancer institute". Daily Monitor. Kampala. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  2. Google (25 November 2020). "Distance between Amber House, Speke Road, Kampala, Uganda and Uganda Cancer Institute, Upper Mulago Hill Road, Kampala, Uganda" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  3. Google (25 November 2020). "Location of Uganda Cancer Institute, Mulago Hill, Kampala, Uganda" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  4. Ainebyoona, Emmanuel (2 August 2016). "Cancer Institute receives six chemotherapy chairs worth 50m". Daily Monitor. Kampala. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  5. Newsroom (19 May 2015). "Fred Hutch And Uganda Cancer Institute Open UCI-Fred Hutch Cancer Centre In Kampala". Newswise.com. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  6. Daughton, Sandi (27 May 2015). "Hutch opens cancer research senter - 9,000 miles away". Seattle Times. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  7. Varmus, Harold (17 March 2014). "Medical Research Centers In Mali And Uganda". Science and Diplomacy. 3 (1). Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  8. Savage, Liz (24 July 2007). "Former African Cancer Research Powerhouse Makes Plans for a Return to Greatness". Journal of National Cancer Institute (JNCI). pp. 1144–1151. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  9. Kiwawulo, Chris (December 2012). "Cancer & HIV Fight Needs More Effort". New Vision Mobile (Kampala). Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  10. Vision Reporter (9 April 2016). "Mulago's new brachytherapy system improves cancer treatment". New Vision. Kampala. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  11. Ainebyoona, Emmanuel (11 April 2016). "Cancer patients to wait for 2 years". Daily Monitor. Kampala. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  12. Emmanuel Ainebyoona (10 May 2016). "Government to build regional cancer centres". Daily Monitor. Kampala. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  13. Emmanuel Ainebyoona (8 July 2016). "Uganda's cancer patients set to go to Nairobi in shifts". The EastAfrican. Nairobi. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  14. Ainebyoona, Emmanuel (12 August 2017). "New Cancer Machine finally arrives into the Country". Daily Monitor. Kampala. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  15. Namagembe, Lilian (19 January 2018). "Cancer cases rise as government launches new machine". Daily Monitor. Kampala. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  16. Agence France-Presse (20 January 2018). "After two-year wait, Uganda gets its new cancer machine". The EastAfrican Quoting Agence France-Presse (AFP). Nairobi. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  17. Paul Ampurire (13 February 2020). "Cancer Institute Commissions Radiotherapy Machine Donated To Uganda By India". Kampala: SoftPower Uganda. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
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