The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print
operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a
leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.
By GATONYE GATHURA
Nairobi, Kenya: Kenyatta National Hospital has confirmed that its doctors and others from Britain have discovered a cure for early stage cervical cancer in an achievement that is a first in the world.
Reacting to this paper’s announcement of the cure yesterday, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Lily Koros Tare said at a Press conference that the finding could help save millions of women who die of cervical cancer all over the world.
“The message today is not just about mourning and despair; we stand surrounded by heroes who have identified a solution for cervical cancer,” she said yesterday at the hospital as she introduced the local researchers involved in the breakthrough.
Dr Innocent Orora Maranga, a consultant at the hospital, who was involved in the study led by Dr Ian Hampson of Manchester University, UK, said they had screened 820 women at KNH and finally settled on 40 patients who had cervical cancer.
“We put them on the HIV drug lopinavir for two weeks which they had to apply in the birth canal on their own at home. This was for a period of two weeks while we kept monitoring them. The results were amazing with a cure rate of almost 90 per cent confirmed after three months,” said Dr Maranga, a gynecologist.
High doses
Ordinarily, the drug is used orally by HIV patients but to treat cancer, Dr Maranga explained it would require very high doses which could be toxic hence they designed a method of applying it directly into the birth canal.
He said earlier laboratory studies had shown the drug to kill the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes most cervical cancers but this was the first time anywhere in the world human trials had been carried out.
His co-investigator Prof Peter Gichangi of the University of Nairobi said they will now move on to Phase II and then III trials, which could require up to 5,000 women.
“If all goes well in these proposed trials, we should have a product in the market in about seven years time.”
Asked why they had to make the announcement more than two weeks after Manchester University had released the information to the UK media, the researchers said they were in the process of doing so in Kenya.
“We are in this together. In fact, KNH and the University of Nairobi are enjoined in the patent of this process. We have documentation with us today to prove this,” Gichangi said though later when asked to produce the document he did not.
The researchers emphasised the need for women to routinely go for cervical cancer screening even as the cure is being fine-tuned so those with the disease can be put on treatment early enough. Maranga said the study will be published soon in The Lancet Oncology journal.
join