The evolution of comprehensive cancer care in Western Kenya

In the next 20 years, it is expected that 70% of incident cancers will be diagnosed in the developing world. There exist very few models of cancer care delivery in resource constrained settings. We present a model of cancer care delivery that developed as a result of a multi-institutional collaboration between high-income country academic medical centers and a Kenyan medical school and governmental referral hospital. Based on the infrastructure provided by a successful HIV care program, AMPATH-Oncology presently offers a range of clinical services across the continuum of care, including cervical cancer and breast cancer screening, palliative care, and oncology clinics in pediatric, adult, and gynecology oncology. This program grew from 346 patient visits amongst a few dozen patients in 2004 to over 30,000 visits by 2012 between screening programs and treatment programs. This paper describes the development of the program over a 7-year period.