This paper describes a partnership between Axios International, Tikur Anbessa Hospital in Addis Ababa, AstraZeneca, and Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health to build breast cancer treatment capacity from nearly nothing. Starting in 2005 with a country that had just one cancer specialist and no standardized care, the program combined free drug donations, staff training, new equipment, and treatment guidelines to transform a single hospital into a functioning center of cancer care, while also demonstrating a low-cost model that other developing countries could replicate.
Publication
Overcoming Challenges of Cancer Treatment Programmes in Developing Countries: A Sustainable Breast Cancer Initiative in Ethiopia
Reeler A, Sikora K, & Solomon B.
Clinical Oncology
Published
Key Takeaways
This paper describes a partnership between Axios International, Tikur Anbessa Hospital in Addis Ababa, AstraZeneca, and Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health to build breast cancer treatment capacity from nearly nothing. Starting in 2005 with a country that had just one cancer specialist and no standardized care, the program combined free drug donations, staff training, new equipment, and treatment guidelines to transform a single hospital into a functioning center of cancer care, while also demonstrating a low-cost model that other developing countries could replicate.
- The incidence of breast cancer is rising in many developing countries. Here we describe a programme to improve the support infrastructure for the management of patients with breast cancer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- [Tamoxifen](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/tamoxifen), a cheap, oral, yet effective, anti-cancer agent was made available freely to encourage staff and patients to follow well-defined, but achievable, protocols of care.
- [Mammography](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/mammography), improved histopathological review, tissue [hormone receptor](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/hormone-receptor) assays, agreed treatment algorithms with a cycle of continuous [audit](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-health-professions/clinical-audit) of over 250 patients and cross-departmental patient management groups led to a considerable improvement in the management of breast cancer patients in a single institution.
- Aspects of this programme are now being extended to other regional hospitals in Ethiopia. Fairly limited investments in programmes for cancer can stimulate considerable improvements in the overall approach to malignant disease by encouraging a positive approach, even in very low resource environments.
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