Africa taking lead in cancer therapy: Professor
With the World Health Organisation predicting that cancer will become the leading cause of death in Africa by 2030, the head of the South African Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure says the continent is taking the lead in cancer therapy.
Professor Mike Sathekge was speaking at the launch of the South African Isotope Facility in Cape Town on Friday.
The facility is hosted at the iThemba Labs.
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Sathekge says many cancer patients will now be able to get treatment.
"This is an example of showing how we are really sustaining life, proudly from the country here that we could demonstrate that patients could live four to five years, but normally they would actually live below a year.
"Of course, that is the issue of what we do here. In the lungs you wouldn't treat them with external radiation and chemotherapy might be difficult, but you can see before and after therapy that this actually is really something that you eradicate and the patient lives much longer."
