Medical practitioners who spoke to
Daily Trust revealed that there are no more than three functional radiotherapy centres for cancer treatment in Nigeria.
The Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, Abuja, Dr Jafaru Momoh, said aside from the hospital he heads, which has two linac radiotherapy machines, only the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), which is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has two of the machines.
Speaking about these challenges, an Oncology Consultant at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Dr Muhammad Inuwa Mustapha, identified lack of radiotherapy machine as a monumental concern that requires urgent attention from both the federal and state government.
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, including Nigeria, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The global health agency estimates that over eight million people die of cancer annually and it is acclaimed the second leading cause of death globally.
The disease is responsible for 72,000 deaths in Nigeria every year, with an annual estimated 102,000 new cases, according to the Nigeria National Cancer Prevention and Control Plan (2018-2022).
The top five cancer burdens in Nigeria are prostate, liver, non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, colorectal and pancreatic for male and breast, cervical, liver, colorectal and non-hodgkin’s lymphoma for the female.
Of these, breast and cervical cancers are responsible for approximately 50.3 per cent of all cancers in Nigeria.