- The team brings together breast surgeons from various countries such as Argentina, Canada, Italy, Ghana and the US will work with local breast surgeons during the week
- Mugenda said the move seeks to give breast cancer survivors a new lease on life as most of them either end up with scars or lose their breasts due to breast cancer
Image: ILLUSTRATION
A team of experts at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital have begun conducting reconstruction surgery for survivors of breast cancer.
The exercise according to KUTRRH board CEO Olive Mugenda targets 10 women this week.
The team brings together breast surgeons from various countries such as Argentina, Canada, Italy, Ghana and the US will work with local breast surgeons during the week.
Mugenda said the move seeks to give breast cancer survivors a new lease of life as most of them either end up with scars or lose their breast due to breast cancer.
“As you know we have a big problem with breast cancer and once the surgery is done a lot of patients are left with scars, with a flat chest having lost their breast because of cancer,” Mugenda said.
“We are focusing on breast reconstructions and the reason we are doing that is we can give these women a new lease of life.”
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the goal of breast reconstruction is to restore one or both breasts to near-normal shape, appearance, symmetry and size following mastectomy, lumpectomy or congenital deformities.
The US National Cancer Institute says breasts can be rebuilt using implants (saline or silicone) or autologous tissue (that is, tissue from elsewhere in the body).
Sometimes both implants and autologous tissue are used to rebuild the breast.
Cancer is the third leading cause of death in Kenya after infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases.
The top five cancers according to the ministry include breast, cervix, prostate, oesophagus and non-Hodgkins lymphoma and account for nearly half (48 per cent) of the cancer burden in the country.
"As one of the best cancer centres in the country we are thinking of how we can help these women get their life back by doing breast reconstruction so that they can live as normal," Mugenda said.
"After breast cancer and the surgery, you don’t have to go showing everybody that you had an issue nd that you have healed."
The National Cancer Institute says surgery to reconstruct the breasts can be done or started at the time of the mastectomy which is called immediate reconstruction.
It can also be done after the mastectomy incisions have healed and breast cancer therapy has been completed.