Malawi National Cancer Center

Malawi National Cancer Centre (MNCC), also Malawi National Cancer Treatment Centre (MNCTC), is a public, specialized, tertiary care medical facility owned by the Malawi Ministry of Health. Since 2020, the facility's administrative department is temporarily housed within Kamuzu Central Hospital, in Nangwagwa (Area 33), in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. Construction is ongoing for a stand-alone cancer unit separate but adjacent to the hospital. This is the first and only cancer treatment unit in the country.

Overview
MNCC is a cancer treatment, research, and teaching center, affiliated with the Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH), the tertiary referral hospital in the city of Lilongwe, serving both the Northern and Central regions of Malawi. Since early 2020 MNCC maintains an administrative office inside KCH and temporarily houses some oncology patients on the wards of KCH. The temporary administrative and clinical leaders of the project are drawn from the national ministry of health and the KCH.

The MNCC is a collaborative effort that involves the following institutions and entities:
 * 1) The Malawi Ministry of Health
 * 2) The University of North Carolina
 * 3) Baylor College of Medicine

Background
Malawi is a Southern African country, with a population of about 23 million as of 2023. Of that number, it is estimated that 84 percent live in rural areas, far away from healthcare facilities capable of diagnosing and treating their malignancies.

Malawi's National Cancer Control Strategic Plan 2019–2029, has its objectives arranged the following broad headlines:


 * 1) Cancer prevention
 * 2) Screening and early diagnosis
 * 3) Treatment and follow-up care
 * 4) Palliative care and survivorship
 * 5) Governance and financing
 * 6) Cancer control research, monitoring and evaluation.

To achieve objectives 2 and 3 a plan was conceived to open a free-standing cancer center to carry out comprehensive diagnosis, classification, treatment, rehabilitation, training and research in the most prevalent adult and pediatric cancers in Malawi.

Construction cost and funding
In 2014 the government of Malawi, through the Malawian ministry of health borrowed US$13.15 million to establish MNCC. The total project cost was budgeted at US$14.75 million, with the national government contributing US$1.60 million. The loan was sourced from the OPEC Fund for International Development. The table below illustrates the sources of funding for the construction of the cancer centre.

Developments
As of August 2023, the construction of the MNCC is ongoing. The infrastructure includes in-patient wards for cancer patients, an outpatient unit, administrative offices, laboratories, radiology, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine infrastructure. Prior to the establishment of the cancer centre, there were no radiotherapy or nuclear medicine facilities in the country.

As of December 2023, it was expected that the completed new facility will be ready to come online in March 2024. The project, whose construction began in 2018, had a planned completion window of 18 months. However, lack of appropriate expertise, death of an expert consultant and other factors led to delays.