Agency wants cancer treatment centre in Nigeria

THE National Cancer Prevention Programme (NCPP) said yesterday that Nigeria was in dire need of comprehensive cancer centre than any developed nation in the world.

Speaking in Lagos during the first day of the ‘NCPP Seven Special Open Days free cancer screening for selected guests’, NCPP Lagos Co-ordinator, Dr. Abia Nzelu, said Nigeria was experiencing many late presentation of cancer cases, a situation which she said the nation did not have medical capacity to deal with as a result of inability to build comprehensive cancer centre as obtained in other countries.

Declaring cancer as a pandemic that has been dangerously taking the lives of Nigerians, Nzelu said 80,000 out of 100,000 new cancer patients diagnosed in Nigeria every year die as a result of inadequate cancer care in the country.

She expressed regret that in spite of billions of naira spent by Nigerians in seeking medical care, especially cancer care in foreign countries, Nigerians have not deemed it wise to build a comprehensive cancer centre in the country.

Comprehensive cancer centres are for comprehensive cancer diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Although some African countries like Egypt and South Africa have comprehensive cancer centres, Nigeria is yet to have one. The nation can only boast of erratic radiotherapy centres in three hospitals located in Ibadan and Lagos. The situation has resulted into a situation where most cancer cases are taken to India, which currently boasts of about 120 comprehensive cancer centres.

Ezelu, who is a consultant ocular oncologist, called on Nigerians to support NCPP to build its proposed comprehensive cancer centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, which is expected to gulp about N10 billion, by texting CANCER to 44777 at a cost of N100.

She said: “Cancer globally is pandemic. Worldwide, one in three persons would be diagnosed of cancer. But in Nigeria, 100,000 people are being diagnosed every year of cancer. Eighty thousand of those diagnosed die of cancer. This means that 10 Nigerians die of cancer every hour, and 240 persons die of cancer every day. How does that compare to the Dana crash that we are all crying about? This is something that happens everyday. The unfortunate thing is that these deaths are silent ones. And these are based on hospital records. So, those people who die at home but were never diagnosed are not counted. This is an under-estimate of the true situation.

“Most of these cancers are preventable. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one-third of cancer could be prevented from occurring and another one-third of cancer cases could be treated effectively if diagnosed early and the last one-third of people can live effective life if there are good facilities.”

Ezelu noted that “to build a comprehensive cancer centre would cost about N10 billion ($63 million). By the estimate of the minister of finance, Nigeria spends over $200 million for Nigerians that go abroad for medical treatment. This simply means that we can build three comprehensive cancer centres every year if we stop spending that money for foreign medical trips. Yet, we do not have one comprehensive cancer centre in Nigeria. But if we all put hands together, even if one person cannot build a comprehensive cancer centre, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has given us a platform where everybody can donate N100 by texting CANCER to short code 44777.”