General Oncology Care in Sudan

Abstract

AbstractThe Sudanese healthcare system has two main branches to solve the country’s health problems, preventive medicine and therapeutic medicine. In other words, it mainly works with communicable and non-communicable diseases and the services are divided into primary level (for the primary health centers), secondary level (general hospitals), and tertiary level (specialized centers such as oncology and neurosurgery). However, the main factors that are drawbacks to the healthcare system are overall economic instability, low health expenditure, and civil wars. Data about cancer in Sudan is scarce. There is a lack of prospective whole country studies about cancer in Sudan. The instability of the population, inadequate trained personnel, and the inefficient cancer registry system contributed to the lack of accurate figures about the true incidence of cancer in Sudan. Therefore, the frequency ratios of tumors are mostly represented in different publications. Cancer in Sudanese patients is usually present lately or in advanced stages and many cases are reported at younger ages. Cancer treatment centers in Sudan are few with inadequate resources for the variety of treatment methods. While huge efforts are being made to improve cancer medical care in the country, there are still many obstacles that need to be solved to ensure that cancer patients have a high standard of services in both public and private sectors. There are limited early detection and screening programs, especially in rural areas. More diagnostic and treatment centers are now being established in many cities in Sudan. This chapter addresses the general view of the cancer situation in Sudan, reviewing the different aspects of the cancer burden and different associated conditions related to oncology.