Our Collaboration with (UCI) is Improving Treatment -Dr Gary

Our Collaboration with (UCI) is Improving Treatment -Dr Gary

By Adiga Julius

The President and Director of  Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Dr. Gary Gilland, has said that he is happy with the collaboration between Uganda Cancer institute and Fred Hutchinson Center based in Seattle USA in the fight against cancer.

Dr. Gary made remarks after paying courtesy call on the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga in her office at Parliament.

In an interview with journalists at parliament, Dr Gary hailed Kadaga and the government of Uganda for the support towards (UCI). He said Fred Hutchinson has had a longstanding collaboration with (UCI) to improve treatment of cancer and other related diseases in the country.

“The purpose of visiting the Speaker of  Parliament Rebecca Kadaga was to thank her and her team and also provide her with an update on the progress made in treatment of cancer in Uganda” Dr. Gary remarked.

He said his organization is working together with Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) in helping to build a cancer care facility in Uganda which will be the best in the whole of East Africa.

He said Hutch is investing in training oncologists so that Uganda can have enough experienced personnel to treat cancer, but also have fellow trainings to train Ugandan oncologists as well as clinical trainings to help Doctors learn some of the technics used in treating cancer through Fred Hutch.

In addition, Dr. Gary  said  the Fred Hutch  built infrastructure with state of the art laboratory facilities at (UCI) for collecting tumor specimens from molecular diagnostic testing, which is the only sequence machine in Africa brought to by Fred hutch institute.

“We have invested a lot of resources because we believe in Uganda Cancer Institute to make sure it happens, we very much appreciate the support from the government of Uganda and Speaker Kadaga has been supportive which is very critical” Dr Gary explained.

It should be recalled that a modern clinic and the state of the art laboratory known as Fred Hutch at Uganda Cancer institute was built with support from the Hutchinson Cancer Center .