The Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH) has received Sh446 million to aid research initiatives in the fight against throat cancer.
The funds were donated by the National Institute for Health Research, a government institution in The United Kingdom that funds health research.
Effectively, the kitty will come as a relief as Kenya ranks the world’s highest throat cancer rate.
Further, the three-year project will seek answers to why most Kenyans who died from cancer have oesophageal cancer.
The proposal drafted by Prof George Njoroge of KUTRRH seeks to establish why Kenyans from Western and Central Kenya have a high prevalence.
The research work will take place in Kiambu, Kissi, Nyeri, Meru and Nakuru.
Some of the theories that have been speculated as contributors to the same include drinking hot tea, fermented milk or chewing miraa.
Some of the things that the research will help in understanding the mechanism of the disease progression to identify disease biomarkers.
Njoroge is a well-established chemist famed for discovering medicines for the treatment of the Hepatitis C virus.
He was also responsible for the discovery of Victrelis. He was based in the United States for 30 years until 2020 when he relocated to Kenya.