Moving Towards an Evidence-Informed Cancer Control Strategy: A Scoping Review of Oncology Research in Kenya

Abstract In 2017, the Kenya Ministry of Health launched the National Cancer Control Strategy 2017–2022. A scoping review of oncology research in Kenya was conducted to understand the scope of, and gaps in, existing research and inform the development of the national cancer research agenda. PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Global Health databases were searched using controlled vocabulary and keywords to identify oncology research with a study site in Kenya, published in English, from 2007–2017. Fifteen journals and additional grey literature sources were hand searched. Screening of titles, abstracts, and full text was completed by pairs of two reviewers with a third reviewer reconciling discrepancies. From included studies, data were extracted and coded using Google Forms. Microsoft Excel was used for descriptive statistics. Of the 284 included articles, a majority were analytic observational studies (66.9%). Furthermore, 78.8% of the studies were facility-based, with patients as study participants (61.5%). One-third were about cervical cancer (35.9%). Early detection, diagnosis, and prognosis (25%) was the primary focus. Western Kenya was the lead study setting, University of Nairobi was the lead institution hosting research, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health was the leading funding source of cancer research in Kenya. This scoping review provides an overview of the published literature on cancer research conducted in Kenya. It highlights cancer research gaps, specifically the need for rigorous, well-conducted population-based studies, longitudinal studies, and randomized controlled trials.