The Problem

In Egypt today, the number of new cancer patients per year is estimated to be 65,000. To this number is added a total of 250,000 patients accumulating from previous years who also require medical care. Accumulated patients represent about three times the number of new cases. This patient load will expand in the future as the population continues to grow, and as the prevalence of known etiologic factors increase. Egyptian patients with cancer usually present at a relatively advanced stage of their disease, which has a negative impact on treatment results. The three most common cancers encountered are urinary bladder (25%), breast (14%) and lymphomas and leukemia's (12%).
Patients with cancer contrary to other disease, require repeated hospital care for several years. Thus a child with acute leukemia requires about 132 hospital visits over a period of ten years while a woman with breast cancer may require more than 20 visits over ten years. Since NCI is the leading comprehensive cancer center in the country, it is overloaded by patients who referred from allover Egypt, although in recent years six small cancer centers have opened throughout the country. In addition to these cancer centers, six university based clinical oncology departments operate in various parts of Egypt.