Kenya's Cancers

Abstract

THE INAUGURAL LECTURES SERIES was started in the days of the University of East Africa when it was a tradition of the then University College Nairobi to have its newly appointed Professors deliver their first public Lecture in Nairobi. The Univerity of Nairobi has now started their new series Lectures and in an attempt to have these memorable lectures well documented and preserved, the University Deans' Committee has granted funds for its publication. This is the first of such a series and will be available on sale at bookstores. Cancer is a world-wide problem, but its distribution shows marked geographic variations. This is particularly evident in Africa where some turn ours are found to be very common in certain areas. It is probable that this indicates the presence of cancer-producing factors in the environment, and in Africa there is an opportunity to investigate this relationship. Already, notable advances have been made in implicating a virus as a cause of the childhood tumour, Burkitt's lymphoma; current research points to the possibility of a chemical cause for cancer of the oesophagus which is particularly common in Nyanza; and both viral and chemical causes may be involved in the common cancer of the liver. These three cancers are selected from the tumours which are commonly seen in Kenya, and rof. Hector M. Cameron dynamically illustrates .he probable role of the environment in their genesis.