Screening, awareness, health education can reduce one-third of cancer cases
Lakeshore Cancer Center the first operational facility in Nigeria solely dedicated to cancer prevention and treatment has said that screening, awareness and health education can reduce one- third of cancer cases in Nigeria.
The health fair gave residence in Lagos the privileged of services in dental, eye, mental health, sleep, preventive cancer screenings, biometrics, yoga and aerobic, organised by the facility took place in Lagos on the march 4, in commemoration of the World Cancer Day. The event aimed at educating people on taking ownership and control of their own health.
Oge Ilegbune a general practitioner, head of strategy, development and outreach at Lakeshore Cancer Centre representing Chukwumere Nwogu, managing director, a thoracic surgical oncology and Cancer Epidemiologist said, prevention actually can be directed to halting the onset of the disease completely or prevention of progression, suffering or life-threatening complications.
“The disease is becoming more prevalent and there are a lot of cancer cases and other related health issues that link to lifestyle. So that is one thing that we must control, we can do these through lifestyle changes, vaccination, cancer screening.
“So the next is, the country needs to put more measures on health education awareness which is equally what we are doing here today. This health fair is not just for checks because knowledge is power and early detection is the key. When we have all this at hand, it can reduce one- third of cancer cases in Nigeria” Nwogu said.
However, advocators urge that federal government should do more in availabilities of facilities, treatment centres and also include cancer treatment in the National Health Insurance Scheme to help patients curtail the cost of treatment.
‘Do you know that 1 in 6 Men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime’ said Runcie Chidebe, executive director of Project PINK BLUE, Nigerians attitude to cancer screening is really way pathetic.
“There is a need to create more awareness for more people to get themselves screened and also most times men usually think cancer is just for women. So it is important to not just focus on only women. Let us also focus on men”
In addition Abigail Simon- Hart, founder The Bricon foundation said that more people are coming out with cancer in the county, it is critical that there is a need to improve on treatment centres and education of training doctors and nurses and have more facilities.
“There is no point generating awareness when do not have enough facilities to treatment patients once they found to have cancer which is the challenge.
“We do not have enough facilities to treat cancer patients in Nigeria; at the moment have only eight machines with over 2million cancer patient’s .As a country, we have to join hands and fight cancer,” Simon- Hart said.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH