Cancer treatment is expensive in Senegal. A thesis defended at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (ISE) of Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) by Dr. Mory Diallo assessed the economic burden of therapeutic treatment for breast and cervical cancers. The thesis, titled "Estimation of the Economic Cost of Cancer Treatment in Public Health Facilities: The Case of Breast and Cervical Cancers Diagnosed at the Joliot Curie Institute in Dakar, Senegal," allowed for an estimation of treatment costs, which do not include transportation expenses. "For breast cancer, direct medical costs are around 5.3 million CFA francs for an average duration of 31 months," stated Dr. Mory Diallo, who previously defended his Master's degree in Economics and Management at UCAD in 2011.

The term "direct costs" covers expenses borne directly by the patient within the healthcare facility, including the purchase of tickets, medical examinations, health check-ups, mammograms, biopsies, scans...

“All these packages of tests allow doctors to diagnose the disease. There is also chemotherapy, which is also very expensive. Despite the state situation, which came into effect in October 2019. There is also surgery,” listed Dr. Mory Diallo, who also had as a supervisor the late Professor Cheikh Niang, an anthropologist well known for his work on health.

Regarding cervical cancer, the average direct costs are estimated at between 4.5 million and 4.7 million CFA francs for an average duration of 19 months. "For patients with cervical cancer, there is the Pap smear. Despite all these expenses, the average direct medical treatment cost ranges between 4.5 million and 4.7 million CFA francs. So, you can see what this average cost means when you compare it to the average Senegalese income," concluded Dr. Mory Diallo, author of several scientific articles.

Faced with these exorbitant costs, beyond the reach of the majority of Senegalese, the researcher strongly recommends implementing an aggressive awareness campaign. In other words, the battle against cancer will be won through awareness and mobilizing people to abandon risky behaviors such as smoking and exposure to ionizing radiation. "The average Senegalese salary is around 150,000 CFA francs. Therefore, this is a cost that is difficult for patients to bear." “The other aspect that emerged from our thesis, beyond the costs we just mentioned, are the costs visible to specialists, that is, to the treating physician,” added the candidate, who was evaluated by a jury composed of Professor Souleymane Gomis, Jury President and lecturer at the Faculty of Arts at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD); Professor Mbaye Diène from the Faculty of Economics and Management (FASEG/UCAD); Professor François Joseph Cabral from FASEG; Professor Cheikh Diop from the Faculty of Science and Technology at UCAD; Professor Ahmadou Dem from the Joliot Curie Institute at Aristide Le Dantec Hospital and also a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine in Dakar; and Professor Fatoumata Hane from Alassane Seck University in Ziguinchor. This thesis was prepared and defended at the Doctoral School of Life, Health, and Environmental Sciences at Cheikh Anta Diop University. Anta Diop from Dakar.