Daily Champion (Lagos)
Olagoke Olatoye
2 November 2009
Except to medical practitioner, the word cancer was virtually unheard of in Nigeria until recently; it was believed to be an affliction in far away land.
But, in recent years, almost every Nigerian now knows someone suffering from one form of cancer or the other, or somebody who has died of the disease. It is here with us.
Dr Abdulrasaq Oyesegun, Chief Consultant Radiotherapist and Oncologist, National Hospital, Abuja, explains that cancer begins in cells -- the building blocks that make up tissues; tissues make up the organs of the body.
Normally, cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old, they die, and new cells take their place.
But, some cells lose control; they outgrow the normal growth mechanism. They want to grow forever?.
According to doctor, cancer starts forming when new cells form when the body does not need them, and old cells do not die when they should, as the extra cells can form a mass of tissue called a growth or tumour.
Oyesegun says tumors can be benign or malignant. Benign tumours are not cancer; they are rarely life threatening.
Benign tumours can be removed and once this is done, they usually do not grow back.
Also, cells from benign tumors do not invade the tissues around them; do not spread to other parts of the body.
On the other hand, malignant tumours are cancer. They are generally more serious than benign tumours. They are life threatening. Malignant tumours can be removed. But sometimes they grow back.
Worse still, cells from malignant tumours can spread (metastasize), invade and damage nearby tissues and organs.
The consultant says the common cancers are of the breast, the cervical, the prostate, the lungs and the colon.
According to Oyesegun, 6.7 million people die of cancer worldwide annually; 10 new cases of cancer are also discovered per annum globally; 25 million people are living with cancer.
By 2020, cancer will start recording 10.3 million deaths annually; produce 16 million new cases a year and will have 30 million people living with it?.
The National Cervical Cancer Prevention Programme (NCCPP), also says cancers kill more Nigerians every year than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Worldwide, about half a million new cases of cervical cancer occur every year, with 83 per cent of these deaths occurring in the developing countries like Nigeria, where cervical cancer accounts for 15 per cent of female cancers as compared to just about 3.6 per cent in the developed countries, it says.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 85 per cent of the estimated 493,000 new cases and over 273,000 deaths from cervical cancer occur in developing countries, including Nigeria.
The NCCPP, in collaboration with Institute Catala d'Oncologie (ICO), in Spain, in its 2007 report on Human Papilloma Virus and cervical cancer in Nigeria, says that every year, 9,922 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer while 8,030 die.
Dr Kin Egwuonwu, National Coordinator of the NCCPP, told a recent workshop in Lagos that the cancer situation in Nigeria calls for concern.
He said Nigerians had yet to fully acknowledge that cervical cancer posed a serious problem.
Egwuonwu said that every woman was at risk of developing cervical cancer and that early screening was the only solution.
A cervical cancer patient identified simply as Josephine -- in excruciating pain on her hospital bed in a Lagos hospital, said it was like there was an oven inside her since the ailment started.
Josephine's plea was that since there was yet no cure for cancer, the government and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), should ensure early detection, through screening, and possible prevention of the condition.
She also pleaded that government and all concerned agencies should find means of reducing the cost of treatment for cancers.
According to WHO, cervical cancer is a cancer caused by several types of virus called human papilloma viruses (HPV).
It defines cervical cancer as cancer that starts in the cervix, the lower part of the uterus (womb) that opens at the top of the vagina, where a baby grows during pregnancy.
"The virus spreads through sexual contact. Most women's bodies are able to fight HPV infection. But sometimes the virus leads to cancer.
"You are at higher risk if you smoke, have many children, use birth control pills for a long time, or have HIV infection", WHO said.
Egwuonwu said most women diagnosed with cervical cancer have not had regular Pap Smears test or they have not followed up on abnormal results.
He said most cases of cancer of the cervix occurring in Africa are detected very late, mainly due to poor access to screening, adding that cervical cancer is 100 per cent preventable if detected on time.
He said more women; both in the rural and urban areas had become aware of cervical cancer, its consequences and the need for screening.
"I am glad that more women are now aware of cervical cancer. Lack of knowledge and ignorance about this disease had killed many women in the past. When people are aware of this disease then, part of the problem is solved,? he said.
However, Mrs. Winifred Osarowemense, Chief Executive Officer of an NGO, Caretotalis Nigeria Ltd., Lagos, described Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) immunisation vaccine as the only effective way of protecting women against the threat posed by cervical cancer.
"We, as an organisation, had taken it upon ourselves to raise the level of awareness about the disease and provide informed option on how to protect our women," Osarowemense said.
She was of the view that government could also support cervical cancer control through partnering pharmaceutical companies in making the vaccines available and affordable to Nigerians.
According to Osarowemense, the commonest HPV vaccine Ceravix -- currently costs between N30,000 and N35,000, which is beyond the reach of most Nigerian women.
Oyesegun says though the major cause of cancer is still being investigated, some habits predispose people to certain forms of the disease.
These include tobacco use, which accounts for 1.5 million cancer deaths globally each year; diet, especially overweight, which makes up for 515,000 cancer related deaths.
Ample use of alcohol takes care of 352,000 cancer related deaths; unsafe sex is linked to 235,000 cancer related deaths, while inactivity -lack of exercise, accounts for 135,000 annually.
The others are environment and gene. A lady, whose grandmother and mother suffered breast cancer, is more likely to develop the disease, he explains.
Meanwhile, medical researchers worldwide have continued to investigate how the cells that form cancerous tumours are formed.
They are also not relenting in their bid to find a cure for the ailment.
The latest effort is the development of what has been christened the Trojan horse therapy by Australian scientists.
The therapy has the potential to directly target cancer cells with chemotherapy, rather than the current treatment that sees chemotherapy drugs injected into a cancer patient, thereby attacking both cancerous and healthy cells.
Observers say that like AIDS, cancer is a challenge to medical research. All of humanity stands to gain from a cure for these two diseases that yet remain incurable.
The nation's First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar?Adua, realises this and her war on cancer is being fought through her NGO, Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF).
In addition, Yar'Adua recently had a fund raising toward building an International Cancer Centre along Airport Road, Abuja.
The centre will provide an evidence-based, high quality cancer care via the right assessment and diagnosis through multidisciplinary approach so as to ease treatment or palliative care.
"If this disease can take our very best, the young, the rich, the old and the poor, then all must be done to check it", Yar'Adua said at the launch.
NAN
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