A group of engineers and specialists from Rwanda and Tunisia, yesterday, started training Rwamagana Hospital technicians on how to operate and maintain a new cancer testing machine recently received from the Ministry of Health.

The modern digital mammography will help pick up invasive tumors and avoid false alarms, according to hospital medics.

Similar modern machines in the country were until recently found at King Faisal Hospital and the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK).

Rwamagana and Huye-based University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB) are the latest hospitals to get the machines.

Dr Jean Baptiste Nkuranga, the Rwamagana Hospital director, said the mammography remains the standard for screening for early stage breast cancer.

It allows a radiologist to capture and manipulate the images so that abnormalities can be seen more easily, he said.

According to the medic, a mammogram which is also referred to as low-dose X-ray of the breasts, is one of the best tools in the fight against breast cancer.

"The machine certainly increases our capacity as a provincial referral hospital. Early detection is important so that breast cancer can be detected at its most treatable, curable stage. It can detect cancer when it is too small to be felt and most responsive to treatment,” Nkuranga said.

"Our comprehensive mammography service will include screening and diagnostic mammography and breast ultrasound, which are important tools for women breast health,” he added.

Eng. Oscar Rurangwa, Managing Director of Medisyst, a company that helps in training hospital technicians to use the machine said the machine provides services during warm and comfortable atmosphere.

"We are here to train hospital technicians, to use the machine appropriately. It is a machine that needs proper handling, I am sure they will master the way it operates,” he said.

Jean Baptiste Nsekanabo, in charge of maintenance at the hospital, said the machine comes in handy.

"These are modern machines that local professionals had not seen before. They are, however, easy to operate since they are digital. It is a question of time before we start managing them,” he said.

The hospital serves a population of over 320,000.