Claim: Mbarara Regional Cancer Centre (MRCC), founded in 2017 by Professors Tony Wilson and Frederick Kayanja, is affiliated with both the Mbarara University School of Medicine and the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, and aims to improve accessibility to cancer care for all Ugandans.
Evidence: Mbarara Regional Cancer Centre (MRCC) is a public, specialized, tertiary care medical facility owned by the Uganda Ministry of Health. MRCC was founded in 2017, by Professor Frederick Kayanja and Professor Tony Wilson. MRCC is a cancer treatment, research, and teaching center, affiliated with the Mbarara University School of Medicine and with the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, the teaching hospital for the medical school. The establishment of the centre was informed by the increased patient burden at Uganda Cancer Institute, where 4,500 to 6,000 new patients are registered annually. The cancer centre works in collaboration with Uganda Cancer Institute, the leading cancer treatment and research institute in Uganda, which is under transformation into the East African Cancer Centre of Excellence. MRCC was registering about 3,000 new patients annually (approximately 9 patients daily), as of March 2018. As of February 2019, Mbarara Cancer Centre cared for a cohort of cancer patients that exceeded 20,000 in number.