Cancer responsible for 152,000 death annually in Nigeria- NCS

The Nigerian Cancer Society (NCS) on Wednesday in Abuja revealed that cancer is responsible for enormous suffering and death of over 152,000 deaths annually in Nigeria.

The President Nigerian Cancer Society , Sani Malami, a professor of medicine, disclosed this at a press briefing to ursher in the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the society in Abuja, on Wednesday, adding that Cancer accounts for more cases of deaths than tuberculosis, HIV and malaria combined.

According to Malami, the cost of advocacy in cancer awareness and enlightenment is a lot cheaper than the cost treatment, hence the need for the federal government to intensify effort in cancer enlightenment programmes,as the risk of a citizen becoming a cancer patient is on the increase due to exposure to several casenogenic compounds on a daily bases.

Speaking on the cost of treatment of cancer patients, Malami hinted that there is a need for the federal government. To incorporate Cancer treatment in the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS), due to its expensive nature.

He said it cost an average of between 3.5-3.8million naira per annum to treat a single cancer patient, as findings shows that one of the major challenges confronting the battle against cancer in Nigeria, lack of requisite infrastructure for diagnosis, late presentation of Cancer cases by Cancer patients particularly in a situation where they have to visit the traditional herbalists for cure, which in the long run results in deterioration of their condition.

On how much is being expended on cancer treatment annually, the president noted that 59percent of what goes into medical tourism annually is in the name of Cancer, as families who can afford to travel for care in foreign countries do so to help save their loved ones from cancer related death.

He said this is so because of lack of efficient advocacy action on the path of the government to prevent, detect, and treat cancer, across Nigeria.

According to the wife of the Senate President, it will allow stakeholders to harness our wealth of knowledge to key into the recently announced government policy for prompt actions across the nation.

On the Golden anniversary celebration slated for thursday and Friday, malami, avers that the key component of the anniversary and conference would be to teach and intensify citizen engagement in reducing high-risk behaviours, to be best positioned to detect cancers at an early stage when they are most successful and cost-effective to treat, while partnership would be sought from organisations on a way forward on cancer treatment and availability of affordable drugs.

Oyin Aminu, Abuja