“The doctors said that I have prostate cancer and advised that I have my penis amputated, I refused,” A retired lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Anton Msinjili explained during a cancer survivors event that was held in Dar es Salaam recently.
He made the statement when giving out his testimony at the ceremony saying that he was first diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2018 after undergoing several tests.
“As I was sitting at the doctor’s office, I saw my form and surprisingly it was written as 19 years old, I wondered, how come the age is that of a young boy while I am 74 years old. I just collected my papers and left the place,” Msinjili said.
He added; “I then went to another hospital, where I was told that the solution to my problem was to cut off my penis.”
However, Mr Msinjili said in March 2019 he went to India where he underwent radiation therapy and saber knives.
Meanwhile, another survivor of cervical cancer Agness Kelly who was diagnosed with the disease in November 2018 said that she was having irregular menstrual cycle which after running tests she was found to have stage two.
Ms Agnes said she later on went to India where she was told she instead has stage four of the disease and not two as was told previously.
“Cervical cancer is not only caused by having many lovers, some of them are caused by pads…my doctor has advised me to use cotton pads and not otherwise,” Ms Agnes said.
Agnes who has been healed says that it was after she received 33 radiation treatments and 6,000 chemotherapies.
On his side, Sridhar Papaiah Susheela, a doctor at Health Global Enterprise Ltd (HCG) hospital in India who treated all the survivors said that most patients who go to the hospital for treatment arrive when the diseases have already reached the final step.
“Most cancer patients in developing countries, including Tanzania, arrive to seek treatment when they are already late, most of them come when the disease is at the final step,” the doctor said.
Dr Susheela mentioned lack of exercise, improper eating habits and smoking as other factors that cause cancer.
According to the Health Ministry statistics of 2022, Tanzania is estimated to have a total of 42,060 new cancer patients yearly and approximately 28,610 patients equal to 68 per cent.
Additionally, the 2021 patients Information from the Ocean Road Cancer Institute shows that most men are affected by prostate cancer by 21 per cent and on the side of women most of them are affected by Cervical Cancer by 43 per cent
