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In 2017, Dikembe Mutombo was honored by the Harvard University Medical School for his ongoing humanitarian efforts and dedication to health care during the Global Health Catalyst Cancer Summit in Boston. The three-day summit, hosted by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School, brought together African ambassadors, ministers of health, celebrity cancer advocates and global health stakeholders to discuss cancer and examine its global effects on society.
In 2016 we successfully implemented a Women’s Oncology Institute at the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital (BMMH) in the capital city of Kinshasa. Using classic bedside and surgical teaching methodology, aided by low-cost telecommunications technology, and wise infrastructure investments, the Friends of Africa, Inc. (led by Dr. Groesbeck Parham) has been able to successfully build effective, Congolese-led programs for the early detection and treatment of female cancers at BMMH, thereby providing public access to these critical life-saving services for the first time ever in the DRC. Widespread access to such services are known to result in significant alterations in cancer death rates. Several months ago, we purchased a new Logiq S8 ultrasound machine from GE Healthcare to aid in evaluating breast and abdomino-pelvic abnormalities for our female cancer patients.

Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Treatment Clinic

* A new Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Treatment Clinic was opened at BMMH in July 2016, under the leadership of the Congolese healthcare providers that were trained in Zambia by Dr. Groesbeck Parham.
* During opening week 8,800 women requested cervical cancer screening services and 3,000 were accommodated
* To date (July 2016-November 2017), the clinic has screened over 15,000 women for cervical cancer, the largest number ever reported in the DRC.
* Almost 1,000 women (1 out of every 14 screened) were found to have cervical pre-cancer, all of whom were treated on the same day (the largest number ever reported in the DRC), using modern outpatient techniques.
Through intensive, quarterly, hands-on training demonstrations held at BMMH, a team of board-certified U.S. gynecologic oncologists from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, successfully trained a local cadre of Congolese gynaecologists to safely and effectively treat women diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer using oncologic surgical procedures. This novel form of competency-based surgical training was developed in Zambia and is specifically designed to rapidly build surgical proficiency in resource-constrained settings, based on the principles of “Deliberate Practice”, intense replication, and mental narration of a limited repertoire of surgical procedures.

Using an approach tailored specifically for training surgeons in resource-constrained environments, a team of U.S., board-certified breast surgical oncologists from the University of Arkansas (led by Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman) successfully trained local Congolese general surgeons to safely and effectively perform surgical procedures that are fundamental to the modern treatment of breast cancer. The training approach was identical to the one used to train gynecologists to perform cervical cancer surgery. To date 81 patients with breast cancer have been treated with surgery by the newly trained team of Congolese general surgeons, under the tutelage of U.S. breast surgical oncologists. All surgeries have taken place in the newly formed Breast Cancer Surgical Unit at BMMH.

In summary, the following has been accomplished:

1. Developed a local Congolese workforce that has the capacity to provide modern, high quality cervical and breast cancer early detection, diagnostic and treatment services, and to train others
2. Established two new female cancer (cervix and breast) specialty clinics at BMMH
3. Established two new female cancer (cervix and breast) surgical units at BMMH
4. Leveraged web-based videoconferencing (Skype, Zoom) technology to facilitate continued education and develop an international women’s oncology community of practice, made up of Congolese, Zambians and Americans.
5. Implemented a women’s oncology data collection system
6. Designed culturally-appropriate health promotion messages
7. Initiated a cervical cancer prevention outreach program


Women's Oncology Care for Africa, known as WOCA. They are the visiting breast and cervical cancer team from the U.S.
left to right, Dr. Groesbeck Parham, Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman and Dr. Michael Hicks.

Dr. Michael Hicks (L), gynecologic oncologist consultant from Detroit, Michigan, and Dr. Alex Mutombo Baleka (R) from Kinshasa, DRC, performing the first radical hysterectomy ever at BMMH in Kinshasa on a woman recently diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer during a cervical cancer screening program sponsored by the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation and supported by UNFPA.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

All the best,
Susan

Susan M. Johnson, J.D.|Executive Director
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P.O. Box 674227
Marietta, Georgia 30006
Tel. 404-262-2109|www.dmf.org