As the new health-e Tobacco Control and Cancer journalist, Lesley was surprised to find herself smoking in this posed pic. Here is the first of her blogs.

At the close of breast cancer awareness month, cancer organisations say proper testing and treatment services for breat cancer are completely inadequate.

A medical research centre to study diseases that most affect Africa is in the final stages of being established at the University of Cape Town. The new institute will concentrate on a variety of diseases including HIV/AIDS, malaria, major cancers and various genetic and metabolic disorders. It also hopes to reduce the "brain drain" by offering South African scientists a place to pursue top quality research.

The cancer burden is rising rapidly in Africa with around 650 000 people developing the disease annually while treatment remains largely unavailable or inaccessible. Next week stakeholders will gather in Tanzania under the banner of the African Organisation for Research & Training in Cancer (AORTIC) to find ways to curb the more than 500 000 cancer deaths annually.

With a cancer death rate more than double that of Europe or North America, African researchers have announced a range of initiatives to tackle the epidemic.

Antiretroviral therapy reduces the incidence of pre-cancerous cervical lesions in HIV-positive women, South African investigators reported in the online edition of AIDS. Their study also showed that HIV therapy was associated with a regression of pre-existing lesions.