Cancer cases on the rise - GAEC

Professor Edward H.K. Akaho, Director General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) on Friday said within the next 20 years there could be 200 million cancer cases worldwide with 75 per cent coming from developing countries. He said realising the upsurge of cancer in the country the Commission had requested the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for assistance to upgrade and expand the Centre for Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine at the Korle-bu and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals and to establish a new one at Tamale to provide care for the patients. Speaking at the 40th anniversary celebration of the GAEC in Accra, he said these two centres had witnessed an increase in the number of new patients of which experts claimed that 70 per cent of the reported cases had reached advanced state. He said nuclear medicine in synergy with radiotherapy services had proved important since it provided tumour marker services for various cancers f the prostrate, liver and the colon. He said the IAEA had assisted Ghana to prepare a proposal to put in place a Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) and that the programme being an initiative of Professor Mohammed Elbaradei, IAEA's Director General would enable early detection through screening including curative and palliative treatments. Professor Akaho said GAEC had realised the need for human resource development to manage and utilise its nuclear facilities of the radiotherapy and nuclear medicine centres, adding that there was presently a wide gap between the older generation of experienced nuclear and younger inexperienced staff. He said the GAEC was established by an Act of Parliament Act 204, now superseded by Act 588 of 2000 with vested responsibility for all matters related to the peaceful uses of atomic energy. He said though scientific research started far back in 1952 at the Physics Department of the then University of Gold Coast, (now University of Ghana) work in radioisotope application gained ground in 1959 with Ghana signing the Non Proliferation Treaty in 1970 after she had joined the IAEA in 1970. He said the main function of the Commission included peaceful application of nuclear techniques and biotechnology for the sustainable development of Ghana ensuing that nuclear safety and security were not compromised. Professor Akaho said the Research Reactor commissioned in 1995 and other nuclear analytical facilities had been used for analysis in geological, medical, biological and industrial materials for various sectors of the economy. He said the agriculture sector had benefited a lot from the commission in the area of gamma mutation breeding and use of tissue culture technique for cocoa, plantain, banana, pineapples, yams, sugar cane coconut and cassava.GNA