Expert cautions on use of herbal medicine in treating cancer

A Cancer specialist and clinical lead for Medicine Department at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Dr. Leo Matemba, has warned the public on the possible dangers of treating and managing the disease with the use of herbal medicine.

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He noted that there are a percentage of patients that uses herbal or alternative medicine for cancer treatment which poses risks especially when patients stop conventional treatment and start using herbal medicines instead.

The oncologist however noted this is somehow different from those who believe in herbal medicine where they’re only using it to supplement what they are receiving at the hospital. 

“The danger with stopping either medication or treatment from a hospital and then using alternative remedies or alternative herbal medicine is that your risk of death becomes much higher; maybe times seven compared to the group that only just uses conventional medicine which is the medicine or the treatment that they receive from the hospital.

“So this is one of the challenges that we see with some of the patients who either are misled or are not very well informed on this matter.”

He also bemoaned the tendency by some health practitioners who at times when patients come to hospitals for help, they don’t conduct a timely biopsy which he stated delays the process of making the cancer diagnosis.

Dr. Masamba advised that it is important to have any unusual growth, ulcer or tissue taken away through a biopsy to confirm or understand what is causing it.

According to him, initially Kaposi’s sarcoma was the leading cancer in Malawi but due to the 90: 90: 90: intervention in terms of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), testing and and adequate follow up of patients, Malawi achieved significant scale up.

Due to these developments, Kaposi’s sarcoma cases reduced but warned that with the passage of time, prostrate cancer is going to take lead.

The medical practitioner indicated that one of the reasons Malawi joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) membership was to establish cancer centres in the country with the National Cancer Centre in Lilongwe set to become fully operational this year.