Improvement of pathology in sub-Saharan Africa

Targetable subsets of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Malawi define therapeutic opportunities

“…26 However, detailed pathologic diagnosis is often not available in LMICs because of a lack of both diagnostic tools and pathologists. 5 Although H&E evaluation is sufficient to diagnose many high-incidence tumors in LMICs (eg, squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix 8 ), hematologic malignancies require broad immunophenotyping and expert review for classification. We reasoned that advanced diagnostics could be applied to classify aggressive lymphomas and potentially obviate the need for expert pathologists, who are in dire shortage within the region.…”

“…4 Additionally, most SSA countries employ ,1 pathologist per 500 000 people, which is approximately one-tenth the rate in HICs. 5 This lack of comprehensive NHL subtyping derives partially from the fact that NHL-related therapeutic interventions are scarce in many SSA countries and treatment with high-dose chemotherapy is impractical due to significant limitations in supportive care; thus, the clinical pressure to fully classify NHLs is greatly diminished compared with HICs.…”

Clinical trials in low and middle-income countries — Successes and challenges

“…High-quality pathology and cancer registries are limited in LMICs. In sub-Saharan Africa, there is less than one pathologist per 500,000 persons (Adesina et al, 2013). Similar to the lack of pathologists, there are limited trained cancer surgeons.…”

A Discrete Choice Clinical Survey and a Proposed Health Promotion Framework for Prostate Cancer in Cameroon

“…Considering the 2013 report from WHO, Africa had the lowest Growth National Income of 2513 US Dollars with 49.2 Dollars spent on cancer yearly; indicating the burden this disease has on the economy of this continent. This disease becomes of prime importance in Africa due to the scarcity of pathologist with just 1 pathologist/1 million people in most African countries [7].…”

“…Cameroon is not exempted from the African countries facing a serious problem with pathologists as one pathologist is entitled to cover 300,000 people [12], a contributing problem to better health care services. In an attempt to reduce the burden of cancer, a National Committee for Control of Cancer was created in October 24th, 1990, whose overall objective was to reduce cancer related morbidity and mortality rate in Cameroon and to create cancer registries [13].…”