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The Problem

Cervical and breast cancer death rates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are among the highest in the world. Low levels of awareness, lack of a cancer control workforce, and the absence of a service infrastructure are the major underlying reasons for this tragic but modifiable situation.

The Training Institute

The training institutes consists of the following:

  1. A Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Treatment Clinic that uses the ‘screen and treat’ approach to cervical cancer prevention, combining digital imaging of the cervix with immediate thermocoagulation or loop excision of cervical precancers

  2. A Breast Cancer Early Detection Clinic that evaluates breast abnormalities using physical examination, breast ultrasound, and ultrasound-guided core biopsy

  3. Women’s Oncology Surgical Units for the treatment of gynecologic and breast malignancies

  4. A Chemotherapy Infusion Unit to provide safe and effective administration of chemotherapeutic agents to patients 

  5. Cervical and Breast Cancer Early Detection Outreach Camps that provide week-long mobile outreach early detection services on a quarterly basis in densely populated areas in and around Kinshasa

  6. Cell phone-based distance consultation and web-based video to mentor cervical and breast cancer surgical procedures

Progress Through Partnerships

Friends of Africa has taken a Quadrangle Partnership Approach consisting of Developing Country Institutions,  Western Institutions, African Diaspora and South to South Collaborations to implement a Women’s Oncology Training Institute at the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital (BMMH) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Partnerships include the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, Cancer Diseases Hospital of Zambia, University of Arkansas School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Dikembe Mutimbo Foundation.  

DRC Women's Oncology Training Institute

Using lectures, bedside teaching, intraoperative mentoring, and teleconferencing, we have successfully built a workforce of cancer care specialists and clinical infrastructure for the early detection and treatment of women’s cancers at the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital

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