Expanding Partnerships in Tanzania

Africa is facing an unprecedented growth in their cancer burden. Tanzanian health leaders recognize they rapidly must expand preparations to meet this public health challenge. Building on a decade-long partnership, UCSF’s Global Cancer Program and Tanzanian educational and health institutes are jointly investing in a cancer control partnership.

In September, Katherine Van Loon, MD, MPH, assistant professor in hematology/oncology and director of the HDFCCC Global Cancer Program, led a group of UCSF faculty and trainees to identify collaboration opportunities. UCSF delegates met with stakeholders from, Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI), and Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Through a weeklong series of meetings, UCSF participants listened to Tanzanian stakeholders and to jointly identify regional cancer control priorities and areas for partnership.

Such a  partnership is a natural outgrowth of a longstanding relationship between UCSF and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The partnership started in 2005 with a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to fund the the Academic Learning Project (ALP). Through the project productive strategies to build the African national health workforce were developed, implemented, and disseminated internationally. Since the initial project, MUHAS and UCSF have expanded collaboration around emergency medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, and cancer research. The recent visit of the UCSF Global Cancer Program aims to seed a regional hub supporting capacity-building activities for cancer care and research. Elia Mmbaga, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Director of Strategic Planning at MUHAS noted, “The MUHAS-UCSF Cancer Collaboration with Dr. Van Loon is the only cancer/NCD group at MUHAS. The successes realized by this group over past three years have created a demand for expanded collaboration. MUHAS faculty and residents were therefore highly enthusiastic about the UCSF faculty visit, with anticipation of initiating collaborative research, training.”

The Priorities

Tanzania estimates that it sees approximately 44,000 new cancer patients per year and demands for cancer care exceed available services. Stakeholders felt strongly that research training was a key to appropriation of resources to improve the cancer burden. Research fuels understanding of disease epidemiology and prevention strategies, and allows the health workers to answer the question, “Is this clinical intervention improving patient outcomes?”

“I firmly believe that by partnering to train and mentor a cadre of investigators in Tanzania who are capable of performing high-quality research focused on cancer, we are investing in cancer care for the entire East African region.” Katherine Van Loon, UCSF.

In addition, the Global Cancer Program is partnering with Dr. Mwaiselage and oncologists at Ocean Road to provide expert review for development of their first iteration of resource-stratified, national cancer treatment protocols. “I will likely be calling on many of the clinical faculty within HDFCCC to assist with this. Looking forward, we aim to establish additional bi-directional clinical electives and research training opportunities for UCSF and MUHAS trainees.” Katherine Van Loon, UCSF.