
Plans for new cancer unit in Mthatha
People diagnosed with cancer living in the rural towns in the southern part of the Eastern Cape have to travel hundreds of kilometres to get treatment.

People diagnosed with cancer living in the rural towns in the southern part of the Eastern Cape have to travel hundreds of kilometres to get treatment.

Behind the protests against the long waiting times for cancer treatment in Gauteng, are patients whose lives are at a standstill.

By Caradee Yael Wright, South African Medical Research Council Most skin cancers are caused by too much exposure to the sun – specifically solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation or rays. These can damage the cells in the skin and cause them…

CAPE TOWN - Cancer survivors gathered in central Cape Town yesterday to protest and raise awareness of the challenges faced by patients in South Africa, saying they are fed up with among others broken radiation machines and poor treatment access.

The growing waiting lists raise serious concerns about delays in diagnosis and treatment, particularly for time-sensitive conditions such as cancer and neurological disorders.

The approval of patents related to a breast cancer drug has allegedly given pharmaceutical giant Roche a near monopoly on a life-saving. When the price of life may be as much as R500,000, your bank balance may be a matter of life and death.

Published by the African Palliative Care Association, this booklet is intended to help women living with HIV as well as cancer of the cervix, their families and others in the community who support them.
The majority of patients with advanced cancer and HIV suffer pain. In the case of cancer, the pain is mostly caused by inflammation or pain in the bones. With HIV/AIDS, a patient can suffer various versions of pain, with some of the more common being peripheral neuropathy, meningitis, thrush in the mouth, oesophageal thrush and cramps from diarrhoea. Most medical practitioners only treat patients with anti-retrovirals which takes several months to relieve symptoms such as pain.

Emerging evidence indicates that being overweight increases your risk of cancer and decreases your chance of surviving it.

Researchers have found the cells at the origin of cervical cancer, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This discovery may offer new ways to prevent and treat the disease.

Oral sex is not as safe as many of us assume it to be. Research shows that it is one of the leading causes of oro-pharyngeal cancer, which occurs in the mouth area.

With effective treatment and dedicated paediatric cancer units in place, very few children should be dying from cancer in South Africa. Yet, only one in three present for treatment. Today (Friday, 15 February) is International Childhood Cancer Day and time to reflect on the childhood cancer situation in the country.

A low-cost, point-of-care test to detect cervical cancer may be available in South Africa by 2018.

A Free State woman who is battling against breast cancer found that by changing her outlook she has been able to change her experience.

Roche continues to block access to its breast cancer drug, Herceptin, say activists, while women around the world suffer.