Dr Sidy Diallo
Project Coordinator MSF
It’s an uphill battle for cancer patients.

Report

With diagnostic tools and resources in short supply and mainly concentrated in Bamako, even obtaining a rapid diagnosis of the disease can be problematic.

Almost 70% of patients
treated by MSF
don’t come from Bamako

Prof. Dapa Diallo
Head of oncology at
Point G Hospital

People start off with traditional practitioners. In reality, it’s traditional healers our patients go to first.

It’s when the cancer causes wounds, malformations or deformities traditional healers aren’t able to treat that they decide to consult a doctor.

Treating patients like these is a real challenge for us practitioners. All too often, people arrive in the very advanced stages of the disease so palliative care is all we really have to offer them.

Patients who are treated
in the advanced stages of the disease
have reduced life expectancy

We’re specialised in supportive and palliative care. We offer some of our patients care in the home. The purpose of these home visits is twofold. The first is medical, with the doctor treating the patient, and the second involves managing their wound.

This department had just over 200 new cases in 2008. In 2015, that number tripled as it rose to more than 600.

Our work with cancer patients is hampered by a lack of resources and an acute shortage of personnel.

Once we succeed in managing the pain, the patient's quality of life improves because the pain they suffer is really intense. It can be excruciating. It’s an absolute nightmare living with such a degree of physical suffering.

MSF has also provided

Malian doctors with
training in cancer treatment

Médecins Sans Frontières moved very fast and provided training in cancer treatment to 60 Malian general practitioners and specialists. The idea was to give doctors basic training and then set up a kind of network to ensure as rapid a diagnosis of the disease as possible. Doctors from almost all of Mali’s regions, from Bamako to Kidal, have had training.

Our efforts will improve the quality of care provided to patients. We’ve made a good start with supportive and palliative care, and the next step now is to focus on treating cervical and breast cancers.


Working in partnership with Mali’s Ministry of Health
MSF provides cancer patients
with support and palliative care
Since November 2018, more than 1,750 medical consultations have been given in Bamako

Between January and
September 2019, over 100 patients received care in their homes