UKZN-Yale partnership focuses on early cancer detection

THE high incidents of head and neck cancer in KwaZulu-Natal have a significant personal and health care cost on health services in the province.

These diseases place a burden on the health system, consuming half to two thirds of hospital resources whether human or capital. In an attempt to address the problem an equitable educational partnership between the universities of UKZN= and Yale, has established a collaborative which aims to address health disparities in South Africa, and is working closely with the Department of Health to improve early detection and treatment of cancer.

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A major thrust of this work has been the development of the Prevention and Early Detection in Head and Neck Cancer Outreach Programme to educate nurses, doctors and other caregivers on how to screen for cancer so that patients can receive care early, improving their chance for effective treatment.

“The five-year survival rate from head and neck cancer is less than 50 per cent which is largely due to delayed presentation. Early identification will allow cancers to be treated and often cured surgically, leading to improved patient outcomes and a decreased overall cost to the health care system,” said Dr Yougan Saman, ENT Head of Department at UKZN and Principle Specialist for ENT in KwaZulu-Natal.

Over a period of a week, UKZN and Yale University professors and physicians will be visiting the Greys/Edendale Complex, Stanger and Ngwelezane hospitals to launch the outreach programme, focusing on educating medical professionals on the causes and risk factors for head and neck cancer. It will include small group workshops reviewing the clinical assessment of the head and neck, which can be performed by primary care practitioners to screen for cancer and other diseases.

Dr Saman said: “The Outreach will lead to reduced hospitals stays and less need for expensive and limited treatment like radiotherapy and chemotherapy.”

At the first outreach session at Grey’s Hospital, Professors Alexandra Kejner and Benjamin Judson from Yale highlighted risk factors and the evaluation for head and neck cancer to a large audience of sisters, general practitioners, and specialists who had gathered from as far away as Dundee.

Following this successful launch, the campaign will be expanded to Manguzi, Hlabisa, Madadeni, Port Shepstone, and Kokstad with an ongoing programme to reach more healthcare providers and thus more South African citizens in need.

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Central to this collaboration is a desire to bring together talented and dedicated professionals with complementary skills and approaches to address problems of shared concern, which has been accomplished by the creation of an exchange program between the Universities. This year, Dr Yakobi from Greys Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, a qualified ENT and head and neck surgeon, will visit Yale University to work clinically with the Otolaryngology department and complete a collaborative research project on intracranial sepsis. In the future, additional South African and American residents and faculty will be able to take part in the exchange to continue to develop its educational and clinical missions.

Moreover, this work is consistent with the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Outreach Programme, ENT-UKZN CARES (Client Access and Referral Expansion service), and its ENT ‘Train the Trainer’ programme that seeks to equip and support clinicians as they embark on the College of Health Science’s exciting new undertaking to decentralize undergraduate training while shifting the emphasis to primary health care and preventative medicine.

The outreach programme has received support from Merck, who are aligned with the UKZN-Yale collaborative and the Department of Health in working to address health care needs in South Africa and around the world.

“This is a largely preventable disease. We are thrilled to be involved in this project and we believe that by working closely with our own medical professionals specialising in the ENT fields, alongside our Yale University fellows, that we will make significant inroads in the education and prevention of all head and neck cancer derivatives in South Africa,” said Merck’s head of market access pricing and policy (South East Africa), Ruth Field.

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