East & Central Africa
Tanzania’s Prime Minister Calls for Unified African Front Against Cancer
Tanzania’s Prime Minister Dr Mwigulu Nchemba used a major health anniversary event to urge African nations to unite in the fight against cancer and…
Cancer
Cancer is a broad term for a group of more than 200 distinct diseases characterized by the uncontrolled division and proliferation of abnormal cells that bypass normal cellular death mechanisms (apoptosis). Driven by genetic mutations in proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, these malignant cells can invade adjacent tissues and spread to distant organs through the bloodstream or lymphatic system (metastasis). While historically treated through surgery, radiation, and cytotoxic chemotherapy, modern oncology increasingly focuses on precision medicine, genomic profiling, and immunotherapy to target specific cellular mutations.
Quick facts about Cancer
- The term originates from the Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BC), who used the word karkinos (meaning "crab") to describe solid tumors because the swollen, vein-stretched blood vessels extending from a hard central tumor resembled the legs and body of a crab.
- In 1951, scientists isolated cervical cancer cells from a 31-year-old African American patient named Henrietta Lacks without her knowledge or consent. Known as HeLa cells, they became the world's first immortal human cell line, multiplying infinitely in labs and driving thousands of medical breakthroughs, including the polio vaccine, cancer drugs, and gene mapping.
- Cancer is the second-leading cause of death globally, responsible for an estimated 10 million deaths annually (roughly 1 in every 6 deaths worldwide). The global economic cost of cancer in direct medical expenditures and lost workforce productivity exceeds $1.16 trillion per year.
- The 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for discovering checkpoint inhibitors (CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 blocks), a revolutionary treatment strategy that stops chemotherapy's blind cell destruction and instead re-engineers a patient's own immune T-cells to identify and attack malignant tumors directly.