Friday, November 4, 2022

UoN scientist and Urologist Dr Charles Waihenya is the African co leader for the Prostate Cancer Research in Africa under AC3 and the principal Investigator for the IRONMAN (International Registry for Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer) project, the Kenyan Chapter.

 The IRONMAN project aims to create a cancer registry for 5000 men internationally. Kenya through its local sites UON,KNH, and MP SHAH will contribute a minimum of 150 participants. The cancer registry will comprise of men with advanced prostate cancer bot mHSPC (metastatic Hormonal Sensitive Prostate Cancer) and CRPC (Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer).

The project was launched in Kenya two weeks ago and the working group has already recruited 2 participants out of the minimum 150 they are targeting. The first publication of the first 2600 participants has just been published In the JCO Global Oncology journal “A novel International Registry of Men With Advanced Prostate Cancer”

In a press conference held Friday, 4th November 2022, at the Sarova Panafric Hotel, Dr Waihenya stated, “the main objective of the project is to collect detailed clinical, epidemiological and biological information about these patients at study enrolment and to follow them prospectively for 5 years with the following objectives;

1.To describe the practice patterns of therapeutic agents for treatment of advanced prostate cancer in Kenya as part of AC3 collaborating site;

2. To assess whether specific treatment patterns are associated with clinically specific side events, and evaluate potential interactions with concomitant medications and demographic factors;

3.To identify associations between treatment sequences or combinations and overall survival;

4.To define the patient experiences of men with advanced prostate cancer and identify unmet needs in their treatment;

5. To identify clinical and molecular disease subtypes that predicts response to individual treatments, combinations, or sequences.  

Other projects the UoN is undertaking under the umbrella of AC3 under the leadership of Dr Waihenya (PI) includes the Africa Cancer Genome Registry (ACGR)  and the CZI. The ACGR; an African genomic cohort to promote the healthy equity among patients of African descent; Characterisation of genetic and molecular drivers.  It Aims to understand the African genome and why prostate cancer is prevalent and aggressive in the population of African ancestry compared to the white population and may help to understand the disparities that exist in these areas. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is a single cell Atlas of normal cell that will help us understand how the cells develop into cancer and will form a backup for future genetic studies. The genetic sequencing will be part of this studies that will promote the use of targeted therapies in the management of cancer.

Further, during the press conference, Prof Ragin Camille, founder and AC3 global lead emphasized the importance and the aims of the projects in line with the goals of the consortium which is to advance the science of cancer prevention and control in populations of African ancestry and to build capacity and knowledge and infrastructure. She emphasized the need to train more African researchers and increase the number of collaborators to help address the existing disparities

Other institutions who are in collaboration in the AC3 projects include: Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Kenyatta University, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Nairobi West Hospital and MP Shah.