Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) management has reported a 10 percent increase in cancer cases between 2024 and 2025, pointing out that females remain the face of the condition.
The country is struggling with rising cases, and data from the Institute indicate that the numbers rose from 7,945 to 8,764 within the same period. Females constitute 55% of the figure, while males constitute 45%.
“We are seeing an increasing number of patients coming to UCI. The face of cancer in Uganda is female. Forty-five percent are males and 55 percent females,” said Dr Nixon Niyonzima, the head of research and training at UCI. “At UCI here, nine percent of the patients were children.”
Dr Niyonzima said the commonest cancers are cervical cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer. “Oesophagus cancer has gone up, as well as colorectal (intestinal) cancer in men,” he said.
“There was an 18 percent increase in breast cancer, 17 percent increase in prostate cancer, bone tumours in children have seen a 46 percent increase, and lymphoma in children also a 42 percent increase,” he added.
According to the report, most patients come from the central region. Dr Niyonzima explained that this could be due to proximity to the Kampala-based main cancer treatment centre for the country.
According to the report, in 2025, there were 67,000 patient visits in UCI. This number is higher because many people were diagnosed in previous years and are continuing with their treatment even as new cases are detected.
Numbers in regional centres
The country also has public facilities for treating cancer outside Kampala –which are Mbarara and Gulu centres. In the Gulu centre, which opened in 2024, there were 927 new patients, a 71 percent increase from the 2024 figures. In the Mbarara centre, there were 1,306 new cases, a 15 percent increase from the 2024 figures.
“The distribution of the commonest cancers is almost the same as for the rest of the country (in UCI Mulago centre). Except there is a slight difference: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer. HCC is one of the commonest cancers in Northern Uganda,” he said.
“We are doing more studies to determine what is driving HCC, but part of the drivers is hepatitis B. At UCI Mulago, we have colorectal, and in the West we have more oesophageal and stomach cancers,” he added.
Dr Niyonzima was presenting during a fact-finding visit organised by the officials from the Ministry of Health, led by Dr Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry.
Prevention
According to health experts and researchers, the common cancers in the country are infection-related. These include cervical cancer caused by Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which can be prevented through HPV vaccination.
Hepatitis B, which causes liver cancer, can also be prevented through vaccination. HIV infection also increases cancer risk.
The other major drivers are lifestyle-related: these include high consumption of alcohol, unhealthy diet and obesity, and tobacco smoking. All these can be modified by following the easily accessible advice of medical professionals.
Prof Damalie Nakanjako, the chairperson of the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) Board of Directors, attributed the increase in numbers to improved awareness, cancer screening and testing in the country.
“The demand for cancer care has increased. The regional cancer centres are important in addressing this need, and we have supported in developing,” she said. “In the next two to three years, we shall have these regional centres fully functional because we are training and developing capacity for that,” she added.
Patient accommodation and operational structure
Prof Nakanjako, however, said the current operational structure hinders them from providing the range of care required for a centre of excellence like UCI.
“For example, the structure does not have a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Centre, does not have a bone marrow transplant centre, and yet we are offering those services already,” she said.
“Our prayer is that we have this structure reviewed and upgraded (by the Ministry of Health) so that we prepare to receive the infrastructure that we are already investing in,” she added.
PET provides advanced medical imaging that detects tiny changes in the body, allowing detection of diseases like cancer, heart conditions, and brain disorders before other scanners can. This increases cancer cure rates and reduces misdiagnosis and related burden on patients.
She also appealed to the Ministry of Health to support the upgrade of care homes to be conducive for patients and caregivers. The existing care home is small and crowded, leaving some patients and caregivers sleeping outside or on the veranda of the facility.
“This care home needs some serious upgrade so that when the patients come, they receive good accommodation for the patients and the caregivers,” she said.
Dr Atwine appreciated the staff and management of UCI for their dedication to handling the large number of patients despite limited human resources and facilities.
Health reforms
Dr Atwine said the government is interested in investing more resources in UCI to position it as a top cancer care centre in Africa to handle both Ugandan and foreign patients. She asked the management to submit these issues for a paper the Ministry is preparing to present before Cabinet.
“We are in the process of coming up with serious reforms. Patients are at the centre of our reforms. We are focusing on improving service delivery and improving the human resources in our facilities, improving on our financing, improving on infrastructure development,” she said.
“Entire 360-degree review, we have given ourselves two months. We want a structure that can deliver the 10-fold growth. This is about services that we can provide to attract people to bring their resources into the country –to improve on the medical tourism, to improve on the research, to improve on knowledge base and skills, to ensure we narrow the skill gap,” she added.
