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18 August 2021 | Story ANDRÉ DAMONS | Photo ANDRÉ DAMONS
Dr Osayande Evbuomwan, a Senior Lecturer and Medical Specialist in the Department of Nuclear Medicine, always wanted to specialise in an area of medicine that was novel, innovative, intriguing and involved a lot of opportunities for groundbreaking research
Dr Osayande Evbuomwan, Senior Lecturer and Medical Specialist in the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of the Free State (UFS) always wanted to specialize in an area of medicine that was novel, innovative, intriguing and involved many opportunities for groundbreaking research.

This passionate medical man, who joined the UFS in 2019, is behind his department using Lutetium 177 PSMA (Lu-177 PSMA) therapy to treatment metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (MCRPC) – an advanced stage prostate cancer. 
The UFS and the Free State province can now join other South African universities, like the University of Pretoria, University of the Witwatersrand, and other provinces in using this method to treat MCRPC patients. 

Built for this job

Dr Evbuomwan explains nuclear medicine is a medical specialty that involves the use of unsealed sources of radiation in the form of radioisotopes for the diagnosis and treatment of various disease conditions including cancers.
“It’s novelty and opportunity for research and ability to diagnose and treat disease conditions in one specialty attracted me to this field. I always wanted to be a doctor. I see it as a calling. It was also something my mum discovered while I was growing up as a child. In my next life, I would choose to be a medical doctor again,” he says.

“I was built for this job and it is always my joy to have the opportunity to carry out my work. We have been well-trained for this; we support all our skills with prayers. We try to give our patients the very best,” says Dr Evbuomwan, who is originally from Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria. 

After graduating as a nuclear medicine specialist from Wits University, Dr Evbuomwan moved to the City of Roses after a work opportunity opened. He saw it as an opportunity to showcase his talents.

“I have been privileged to receive training in this treatment during my residency training at Wits. I treated a few of these patients during my training and the results were amazing. The University of Pretoria has also been involved with this treatment, with some amazing results that are recognised worldwide. 

“This was enough to convince me to push for our department to also join the powerhouses and offer this treatment to patients who need it. With the influence of a very understanding head of department, Dr Gerrit Engelbrecht, we have been successful in pushing for the commencement of this treatment at our facility,” says Dr Evbuomwan.

Important treatment
According to him, the availability and expertise of Lutetium 177 PSMA (Lu-177 PSMA) therapy to treat MCRPC is very important for the Free State and the UFS, as it is able to offer an option for patients who do not qualify for available conventional treatment and/or who have failed the first line of conventional treatment. 

“In the majority of patients this treatment offers improved quality of life, disease-free progression and improved overall survival. It also alleviates the constant bone pains these patients have to go through daily. To be able to offer this treatment puts the university and the province on the map alongside other top institutions in and outside the country. It also offers opportunity for research,” says Dr Evbuomwan.

He believes with a PET/CT camera for proper staging of these patients with cancer the UFS would be able to expand the treatment of patients suffering from this deadly illness. Currently the university does not possess such a camera and has to use lesser methods in identifying the right patients for this therapy.

News Archive

UFS sets trend for higher education institutions
2005-09-21

The University of the Free State (UFS) offers more service-learning courses than any other higher education institution in the country and has the highest number of students enrolled for these service-learning courses.

This was the research findings on higher education institutions conducted between 2001 and 2004 by the Joint Education Trust (JET) into service-learning courses. These are courses which seek to integrate service to the community into the academic core of higher education institutions.

The results of this research indicated that the UFS is one of the few higher education institutions in South Africa that have made progress in integrating community engagement into the mainstream academy.

According to the findings 2 233 students at the UFS participated in service-learning courses supported by JET, while 858 students at the University of Transkei (UNITRA), 636 students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and only 600 students at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) participated in service-learning courses.

In total there were 6 930 students participating in service learning courses supported by the JET at 10 institutions throughout the country.

The research also found that out of a total of 182 service-learning courses supported by JET countrywide, the UFS had the highest number of such courses at 42, followed by WITS with 28, the University of Kwazulu Natal with 26, UWC 24 and UNITRA with 22.

Nationally, most of the service-learning courses at higher education institutions are offered in the human sciences (62), followed by health sciences (37), education (26), agriculture (14), and economic sciences (11).

According to leading academics, service-learning is a credit-bearing, educational exercise in which students participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs and helps the student to gain a deeper understanding of course content and a sense of civic responsibility.

Reacting to the research findings, the Rector and Vice-chancellor of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the university feels strongly that there should be integration of service-learning into the academic core of the institution.

“Through service-learning modules the UFS can give expression to its role of service to the community as an institution of higher learning, producing quality graduates who understand the communities in which they will have to function for the rest of their lives,” Prof Fourie said.

According to Mr Jo Lazarus, the project manager of the Community-Higher Education – Service Partnership (CHESP), which falls under the JET, a number of institutions have identified community engagement as a strategic priority and have allocated significant resources from their central budget towards its implementation.

Mr Lazarus said most students have an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards service learning.

“A large percentage of students surveyed indicated that their service-learning course helped to improve their relationship skills, leadership skills and project planning abilities. As significant is the fact that these courses also benefited them in terms of their awareness of cultural differences and opened their eyes about their own cultural stereotypes,” said Mr Lazarus.

“The key challenge still hampering the integration of service-learning as a core function of academic activity is that some institutions still see service-learning as an add-on, and nice-to-have activity,” he said.

According to Mr Lazarus higher education must demonstrate social responsibility and commitment to the common good by making available expertise and infrastructure for service-learning as a form of community engagement.

Media release
Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel:  (051) 401-2584
   Cell:  083 645 2454
   E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
   20 September 2005

 

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