What you need to know:
- Uganda records about 4,000 new breast cancer cases annually, according to figures attributed to the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), with women aged between 30 and 50 among those most affected.
Over-reliance on spiritual healing and traditional remedies is frustrating efforts to combat breast cancer among women in the Acholi sub-region, Dr Lucy Ajok, the founder of Acholi Women in Health Foundation, has warned.
Dr Ajok said some women were delaying or abandoning hospital treatment in favour of faith-based healing and herbal remedies, allowing the disease to progress to advanced stages and reducing their treatment options and chances of survival.
In an interview with Monitoron Tuesday, she said that although the government had made progress in breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment, reliance on unproven remedies remained a major challenge.
“There is this over-reliance on unproven remedies; this takes us back to traditional herbs and spiritual healing. These are unproven things that we don’t know whether they can cure cancer or not,” Dr Ajok said.
She said that while cancer research was advancing globally, the effectiveness of the herbal and spiritual remedies some patients relied on remained unproven.
“Spirituality is important, but it cannot replace medical services. It can act as a way of comfort, seeing that you have hope in the future, but it cannot replace medical services,” she said.
Dr Ajok was commenting on the foundation’s latest assessment of breast cancer in the region as the world marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.
She also cited weaknesses in referral and follow-up systems as barriers to timely diagnosis and treatment.
“Our follow-up system has been a major barrier to accessing cancer treatment, diagnosis and recovery of patients. We have fragmented referrals and follow-up systems, and yes, we have tried to put in a lot as a country, as government and health practitioners, but it is still at its worst,” she said.
Dr Ajok gave the example of a patient referred from Padibe Health Centre IV to Mulago National Referral Hospital for a CT scan or another diagnostic procedure.
She said health workers who initiated referrals often did not establish whether patients had reached the referral facility, leaving gaps in follow-up and continuity of care.
She also identified gender roles and family responsibilities, particularly motherhood, as barriers that can cause women to prioritise caring for relatives over seeking treatment for themselves.
Dr Ajok called for more research into breast cancer in the Acholi sub-region, saying locally generated data would help identify gaps in healthcare delivery and inform interventions.
“By having this local data, we would then have evidence of the health gaps in the region. We have to encourage research, especially locally,” she said.
Acholi Women in Health Foundation is a non-profit organisation that focuses on safe motherhood, reducing maternal deaths in the Acholi sub-region, HIV screening and tackling teenage pregnancy through community-based health education.
Cancer burden
Uganda records about 4,000 new breast cancer cases annually, according to figures attributed to the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), with women aged between 30 and 50 among those most affected.
During the 2025/26 financial year, cervical cancer accounted for 18.2 per cent of cancer cases registered at the UCI facility in Gulu, followed by breast cancer at 11.2 per cent, prostate cancer at 9.2 per cent, oesophageal cancer at nine per cent and blood cancers at nine per cent.
Dr Fadhil Geriga, the head of the institute, said some religious groups continued to regard cancer as supernatural, while others attributed the disease to witchcraft.
Such beliefs can complicate efforts to encourage patients to seek timely medical assessment and treatment, highlighting the need for community education alongside improved access to cancer services.