Oncology in Mozambique: Overview of the Diagnostic, Treatment, and Research Capacity

Satish Tulsidás; Filipa Fontes; Mariana Brandão; Nuno Lunet; Carla Carrilho

doi:10.3390/cancers15041163

Oncology in Mozambique: Overview of the Diagnostic, Treatment, and Research Capacity

Cancers (Basel). 2023 Feb 11;15(4):1163. doi: 10.3390/cancers15041163.

Authors

Satish Tulsidás^{1

2

3}, Filipa Fontes^{2

3

4

5}, Mariana Brandão^{2

3

6}, Nuno Lunet^{2

3

4}, Carla Carrilho^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Serviço de Oncologia Médica, Hospital Central de Maputo, nº 1653 Avenida Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo 1101, Mozambique.
² EPIUnit-Instituto de Saúde Pública, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Taipas, n° 135, 4050-600 Porto, Portugal.
³ Laboratório para a Investigação Integrativa e Translacional em Saúde Populacional (ITR), Universidade do Porto, Rua das Taipas, n° 135, 4050-600 Porto, Portugal.
⁴ Departamento de Ciências da Saúde Pública e Forenses e Educação Médica, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Rua Doutor Plácido da Costa, 4200-450 Porto, Portugal.
⁵ Unidade de Investigação em Enfermagem Oncológica, Centro de Investigação do Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto, Rua Dr António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal.
⁶ Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Jules Bordet, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Rue Meylemeersch 90, 1070 Anderlecht, Belgium.
⁷ Departamento de Patologia, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Avenida Salvador Allende, nº 702, Maputo 1101, Mozambique.
⁸ Serviço de Anatomia Patológica, Hospital Central de Maputo, Avenida Eduardo Mondlane, nº 1653, Maputo 1101, Mozambique.

Abstract

Mozambique is one of the poorest countries worldwide, with nearly two thirds of the population living below the poverty line. Similarly to other less developed countries, there is a weak provision of health care for non-communicable diseases due to competing priorities with infectious diseases. Although the leading causes of death in Mozambique in 2019 were Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome/Human Immunodeficiency Virus and other sexually transmitted diseases and respiratory infections and tuberculosis, with increasing urbanization and westernization of lifestyles, deaths attributed to cancer are also on the rise. This review summarizes cancer burden, cancer prevention and screening, cancer care resources, and trends in cancer training and research in Mozambique, providing a background for the development of cancer care policies in the country.

Keywords: Mozambique; cancer care facilities; cancer screening; cancer vaccines; developing countries; neoplasm; registry.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

An individual Ph.D. grant attributed to ST was funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.