The state of medical oncology in Senegal

Senegal has only one medical oncology specialist, who works at the Cancer Institute, but chemotherapy is performed in several public and private sites in the capital city of Dakar by competent general practitioners and oncology surgeons. There are several key needs. Human resources development is necessary that includes an offer of fellowships for full specialisation for freshly graduated doctors, combined with capacity training of experienced general practitioners, without forgetting to add chemotherapy in the training curricula of nurses. There is a need for a substantial subsidy of anti-cancer drugs, especially targeted treatments, and their control by the national drug-control laboratory. All this requires the centralised management of anticancer drugs with a technical platform adapted for their secure storage, preparation and delivery.