Cancer can be avoided say specialists
Chukwumere Nwogu, a Cancer Epidemiologist; Thoracic surgical oncologist and chief executive officer, Lakeshore Cancer Centre and Stephen Edge, a professor of Surgery and Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Buffalo, New York, USA, recently spoke to BusinessDay’s Anthonia Obokoh, on cancer management, risk factors and cost effective ways of cancer control. Excerpts:
Chukwumere:
What are the leading causes of cancer?
The leading causes of cancer depend on where you are in the world. In Nigeria, the four most common cancers based on the data that was just released this year by the World Health Organization (WHO) are breast, cervical, prostate and colorectal cancers.
How do we attract more investment into cancer treatment?
First of all, one of the most important things is to have the National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP). It will deal with all the different aspects of the prevention, early detection, acute diagnosis, treatment and palliative care that are important.
Yes, the federal government might be trying it’s best to increase the numbers of radiotherapy machines, but even at that it is inadequate.
It is estimated that every country or low middle income country like Nigeria, should have one radiotherapy machine for one hundred people. So there should be close to two million machines, since the country’s population is approaching 200 million people.
The machine itself might cost in the neighbourhood of about N3 million, but it is not just about the machine, we need to build special building or vault for the machine, which is also expensive.
Also another angle to be looked at is the cost-effective ways of dealing with cancer to reduce the burden of the disease, which constitutes the highest cause of medical tourism by Nigerians.
It has been documented that the burden of non- communicable diseases on the Nigerian population is growing at an alarming rate. Given the limited expenditure on healthcare in Nigeria, it is crucial to strive to maximize the impact of cancer control through less financially demanding alternatives that exist.
Lifestyle modifications, vaccination, screening, early/accurate diagnosis, appropriate treatment and palliative care are all critical components of effective cancer control.
There is a compelling opportunity to engage collaboratively with the public and private healthcare institutions. Physicians, nurses, pharmacist, allied healthcare workers, researchers, non-governmental organizations and the citizenry can work to stop the cancer challenge.