Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) is a public, specialized, tertiary care medical facility owned by the Uganda Ministry of Health. The facility is located along Upper Mulago Hill Road, on Mulago Hill, in the Kawempe Division of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and ...

, about north of the central business district of the city. The geographical coordinates of the institute are: 00°20'29.0"N, 32°34'40.0"E (Latitude:0.341389; Longitude:32.577778).

Overview

UCI is a cancer treatment, research, and teaching center, affiliated with the Makerere University School of Medicine and with the

Mulago National Referral Hospital Mulago National Specialised Hospital, also known as Mulago National Referral Hospital, is a component of Mulago Hospital Complex, the teaching facility of Makerere University College of Health Sciences. It is the largest public hospital in ...

, the teaching hospital for the medical school. UCI maintains an inpatient facility with a capacity of 80 beds. It attends to an average of about 200 patients daily. In October 2011, ground was broken for a three-story, integrated cancer training and treatment facility, measuring nearly . The new building, called the "Uganda Cancer Institute/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Clinic and Training Institute", is a project of the UCI/Hutchinson Center Cancer Alliance, a collaboration of UCI and the

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, formerly known as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and also known as Fred Hutch or The Hutch, is a cancer research institute established in 1975 in Seattle, Washington. History The center grew out ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, US. In May 2015, the completed facility opened and began attending to patients.

History

UCI was founded in 1967 with twenty beds, as the Lymphoma Treatment Center, to treat childhood lymphomas, predominantly

Burkitt's lymphoma Burkitt lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, particularly B lymphocytes found in the germinal center. It is named after Denis Parsons Burkitt, the Irish surgeon who first described the disease in 1958 while working in equatorial Afr ...

, the most common childhood lymphoma in Uganda and endemic to

tropical Africa Although tropical Africa is mostly familiar to the West for its rainforests, this biogeographic realm of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with hot moist climates, which are caused by latitude and the tr ...

. In 1969, UCI expanded to a total of 40 beds, when the Solid Tumor Center was added to focus research on Kaposi's sarcoma and

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

. "During the 1960s and early 1970s, UCI was a leading international medical research center, in its areas of specialization. UCI established collaboration with the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. T ...

(NCI) in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which ...

." In 1972, following the expulsion of Ugandan Asians by dictator

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...

, nearly all of NCI's scientists left. "Professor Charles Olweny, a Uganda researcher, interrupted his studies at NCI in the USA and returned to become the first Ugandan director of UCI. In 1982, following the overthrow of

, Olweny was forced to leave Uganda for security reasons, leaving leadership of UCI in the hands of Professor Edward Katongole-Mbidde. When Katongole-Mbidde left UCI to become the director at the

Uganda Virus Research Institute The Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) is a medical research institute owned by the Uganda government that carries out research on communicable diseases in man and animals, with emphasis on viral transmitted infections. UVRI is a component o ...

in 1995, Dr. Jackson Orem took over the helm at UCI. Between 2011 and 2015, the bed capacity at the institute was increased to 80.

International collaboration

The international research centers with collaborative projects with Uganda Cancer Institute include, but are not limited to the following: # National Cancer Institute – Bethesda, Maryland, US # Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center – Seattle, Washington, US # Case Western Reserve University – Cleveland, Ohio, US

Brachytherapy

In 2016, the institute installed a "Flexitron Cobalt-60 High Dose Rate" brachytherapy system from

Elekta Elekta is a global Swedish company that develops and produces radiation therapy and radiosurgery-related equipment and clinical management for the treatment of cancer and brain disorders. Elekta has a global presence in more than 120 countries, ...

. The system is part of a two-year renovation plan that UCI is implementing at a cost of US$49 million.

Teletherapy

In March 2016, the "Cobalt-60 Teletherapy" unit at UCI, which had been in use for the previous 20 years, broke down. Efforts to acquire a replacement unit are underway, with installation expected in 2018. In the interim, the Uganda Ministry of Health has arranged with the Aga Khan University Hospital in

Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper had ...

, to offer teletherapy to some Ugandan patients. A brand new teletherapy machine, manufactured in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...

, arrived in Uganda in August 2017. The machine was purchased at a cost of €642,000 (more than UShs2.7 billion), contributed by the

government of Uganda Uganda is a presidential republic in which the President of Uganda is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government business. There is a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is ...

and the

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1 ...

(IAEA). It is expected that installation of the new machine will take at least one month. Following installation and testing of the new machine, the institution started treating patients using the new telepathy machine on 4 December 2017 and officially commissioned it on 19 January 2018. In February 2020, UCI commissioned a new Bhabhatron II Cancer Therapy Machine, donated to Uganda by the

government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. This machine, which also uses Cobalt 60 as the source of radiation will supplement the one acquired two years earlier from the Czech Republic. The new unit was installed by Indian technicians. A group of Ugandan oncologists and technicians were earlier sent to India to train on how to operate the new machine. Also in 2018, Samta Memorial Foundation, an Indian-based non-government organization donated a mobile mammography unit that is now in use at UCI.

Medical directors

The following medical researchers have served as director of UCI since its founding in 1967: # John Ziegler – American: 1967–1972 # Charles Olweny – Ugandan: 1972–1982 # Edward Katongole-Mbidde – Ugandan: 1982–1995 # Jackson Orem – Ugandan: 1995–Present

References

External links

Website of Uganda Cancer Institute

Nearly Half of Children With Cancer Untreated
As of 27 February 2019.

Mulago cancer machine: radiotherapy bunker renovation complete
{{Kampala District Medical research institutes in Uganda Hospitals in Kampala 1967 establishments in Uganda Hospital buildings completed in 1967 Cancer organisations based in Uganda