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10 June 2015 Last updated at 13:24 BST
Johanna Amunjela, a PhD scholar at the University of Aberdeen, in the UK, is among the first in the world to investigate the role that specific proteins have in how the disease develops.
Earlier this year, she presented her findings at the Genes and Cancer conference held at Cambridge University.
She has been speaking to BBC Africa's Farayi Mungazi.
A young Namibian scientist has vowed to find a cure for cancer - one of the biggest killer diseases in the world.