Breast clinic programme gains momentum

The Cancer Association of Namibia (CAN) and breast clinic leadership recently visited and successfully established a breast clinic programme at the Walvis Bay and Swakopmund state hospitals.

According to Rolf Hansen, chief executive officer of the Cancer Association of Namibia (CAN), the coastal programme has already seen multiple patients move through the new referral process in record time since being launched in the first week of March 2024. “When we get women screened, biopsied, and into the new referral system faster, better treatment outcomes will be the result as well,” he said.

CAN partnered with the medical team at the Dr. AB May Cancer Care Centre of Windhoek Central Hospital and Roche Pharmaceuticals in 2023 to address the critical incidence of advanced breast cancer,

The programme, spearheaded by Dr. Marcia Venter and Dr. Annelle Zietsman of the Dr. AB May Cancer Care Centre, was launched in Windhoek in February 2023.

The initiative is aimed at capacitating nurses and doctors to promote clinical breast examinations rurally, facilitating referrals to a breast clinic, and improving biopsy, diagnosis, and prognosis timeliness, and by doing so, navigating the patient to faster, more responsive treatment.

The programme start-up has been financially supported by CAN and Roche since its inception.

Hansen added that a formalisation visit to Onandjokwe Hospital and Oshakati Intermediate Hospital, funded by CAN, will cement the breast clinic programme rollout at these two major referral medical centres in the North.

“The next areas of focus will be Rundu, Katima Mulilo, and Keetmanshoop, where similar programmes will be introduced.”