Oncology capacity building
The PALOPS – Portuguese Language Speaking African Countries – are undergoing a period of epidemiological transition resulting from the ageing of their populations and new consumption habits, factors driving a rise in the prevalence of the mortality and morbidity associated with non-transmissible diseases, which include the oncological. The latter constitutes one of the leading causes of death among the adult population, weighing particularly heavily on women. However, little attention has thus far been paid by international donors.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation launched its support for this area in Mozambique in 2002 through capacity-building of the Anatomical Pathology, Anesthesiology, Radiology and Pain Unit services at the Central Hospital of Maputo, and in Cape Verde in 2012, with the training of technical staff for a survey of the population base for cervical cancer. Later, in conjunction with local partners, work began on developing integrated projects in the oncology field in these two countries.
Following their development of National Cancer Control Plans, and in keeping with the profile of research in this field, ongoing projects include strengthening the organisational infrastructures necessary to carrying out quality clinical research and testing.
Onco-CV: Consolidate, strengthen and improve the approach to oncological diseases in Cape Verde
Onco-CV emerged out of the need to ensure the continuity of the work carried out by the “Oncology Cape Verde” project between 2018 and 2022, which contributed not only to boosting the number of oncological surgeries and chemotherapy sessions but also reducing the number of patient evacuations to Portugal through training health professionals and acquiring specialist clinical equipment.
- acquisition of the equipment implementing the Medical Oncology Service at the Dr. Baptista de Sousa Hospital, Mindelo;
- staging over 20 specialist training internships for Cape Verdean health professionals in Portugal; and
- local training of around 50 professionals, which produced improvements in the imageology and pathology diagnosis capacities both at the Dr. Baptista de Sousa Hospital and the Dr. Agostinho Neto Hospital, Praia.
These activities are contributing to improving the surgery and chemotherapy treatment conditions alongside the provision of palliative care to oncological patients in both hospitals while also leading to the consolidation of the Population Oncological Registry.
Promotor: Agostinho Neto Hospital, Praia and Baptista de Sousa Hospital, Mindelo.
Technical Partners: IPO-Lisbon, IPO-Oporto, IPO-Coimbra and the Local Health Unit of Coimbra.
Location: Cape Verde
Target Public: Population of Cabo Verde
Duration: 2023-2026
ONCOINVEST: Capacity Building to Better Treat Oncological Diseases in Mozambique
ONCOINVEST seeks to contribute to strengthening the coverage of differentiated and quality health services in Mozambique through activities spanning the clinical and research fields.
The objectives are: strengthening the coverage of quality differentiated health services in Mozambique, improving clinical accompaniment and tailored to the treatment of oncological patients through reinforcing the means of diagnosis and the competences of health professionals. The project also aims to boost clinical research and the sharing of scientific knowledge, especially with Cape Verde.
This also incorporates the acquisition of remote means of oncological histologic pathology and medical equipment and staging training internships for doctors and interns at Portuguese hospital institutions. This furthermore extends to setting up a Master's Degree in Oncology and awarding grants for the design, installation, training and utilisation of a biobank and an electronic database system and the awarding of Master's and Doctoral Degree grants at FAMED-UEM.
ONCOINVEST activities foresee improvements to clinical support and the appropriateness of oncological patient treatments through strengthening the means of diagnosis, the competences of health professionals and fostering clinical research in Mozambique while boosting the sharing of scientific knowledge on the oncological field in the PALOPs, especially in Cape Verde.
In the clinical field
- the acquisition of remote oncological histologic pathology and medical equipment;
- collaboration with the oncology service of the Dr. Agostinho Neto Hospital in Cape Verde;
- hosting training internships for doctors and interns at Portuguese hospital institutions.
In research
- setting up a Master's Degree in Oncology and awarding grants to over 20 Cape Verdean health professionals with the medium term objective of ensuring Cape Verde may deploy remote digital pathology and strengthen its oncological human resources;
- designing, installing, training and using a biobank and an electronic database system;
- awarding Master's and Doctoral Degree grants at FAMED-UEM;
- participation in international scientific congresses and holding a scientific seminar on oncology and biobanks in Maputo.
Promoter: Faculty of Medicine, the Eduardo Mondlane University in collaboration with Maputo Central Hospital.
Technical Partners: São João Local Health Unit, IPO-Oporto and IPATIMUP.
Financing: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and CAMÕES I.P. (under the auspices of the joint pluriannual Cooperation for Development health program).
Location: Mozambique
Target Public: Population of Mozambique
Duration: 2024-2026
MOZAPAT: Development of Anatomical Pathology teaching methodologies based on digital microscopy and artificial intelligence models
This project seeks to endow the technological infrastructures for hosting and making available images and visualisation tools at the Faculty of Medicine of the Eduardo Mondlane University and, through this entity, provide access to the installed teaching system to the University of Lúrio, Licungo University and the Catholic University of Mozambique. MOZAPAT also aims to establish the conditions for updating the technology based teaching methodologies, including the integration of tools such as ChatGPT and similar LLM (Large Language Models) based systems at the Faculty of Medicine, Eduardo Mondlane University.
This project aims to contribute towards improving the teaching of Anatomical Pathology, preparing future doctors for the new challenges in health research and harmonising the teaching of medicine in Mozambique.
Promoter: Faculty of Medicine, Eduardo Mondlane University.
Technical Partners: Faculty of Medicine, University of Oporto.
Location: Mozambique
Target Public: Mozambican doctors
Duration: 2023-2025
ONCO STP – Improving the cancer diagnosis capacity in Sao Tome and Principe
The ONCO-STP Project sets out to support an anatomical pathology laboratory in the Dr. Ayres Menezes Central Hospital in order to guarantee the necessary conditions for undertaking anatomic-pathologic diagnoses of cancer in Sao Tome and Principe.
The activities planned for this project involve the specialist training of Santomean health professionals in a digital format, capacity-building internships in Portugal and training in laboratorial and clinical contexts as well as acquiring the specialist laboratory equipment and consumables necessary to the functioning of the anatomical pathology laboratory.
This project is expected to contribute towards improving the cancer diagnosis capacity in Sao Tome and Principe, increase early diagnoses and the consequent quality of life, encourage research in Sao Tome and Principe in the oncology field, taking into consideration the contribution of the anatomical pathology laboratory as a source of epidemiological data on oncological and other diseases and thereby formulating evidence based health policies.
Promoter: Sao Tome and Principe Ministry of Health.
Technical Partners: Dr. Francisco Gentil Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Oporto (IPO-Oporto) and Fernando Pessoa University.
Location: Sao Tome and Principe
Target Public: Health professionals at the Dr. Ayres de Menezes Hospital
Duration: 2026