The Federal Government has designated seven of its Federal Tertiary Health Institutions as Oncology Centres of Excellence with a view to upgrading them to manage invasive cancer and cancer-related illnesses.
Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said this at a news conference to commemorate the 2020 World Cancer Day on Tuesday in Abuja.
World Cancer Day is marked worldwide on 4th February annually, aimed at averting millions of preventable deaths through awareness creation.
The minister said the government had designated the seven centres to manage cancer-related illness in line with the international best practices.
The seven institutions are the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Lagos, and University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan.
Others are University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Amadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABTH), Zaria and National Hospital, Abuja.
The minister said the second phase of Medical Physicist Residency training in South Africa was underway to enhance the skills and increase the number of personnel in radiotherapy.
In addition, he said there were plans to train healthcare workers at the Primary Health Cares on early diagnosis and referral of common cancers.
According to him, government is partnering the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to make 16 chemotherapy medications available at 65 per cent cheaper than current market cost.
Ehanire said that 2020 marked the midway point of the three years “I am and I will’’ which is an empowering call-to-action, urging for personal commitment and represents the power of individual action taken now to impact the future.
He, therefore, called on everyone to join in the fight against cancer as the government had laid a solid foundation upon which it would build an enviable hub of cancer management in sub-Saharan Africa.
The minister added that the cancer hub will help to curb medical tourism and reducing capital flight to the barest minimum.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Abdulaziz Abdullahi said the theme of the celebration was apt as it made it 20th-anniversary cancer control programme.
Abdullahi who represented Mr Felix Ogenyi, Director General Services said the ministry had committed a lot of resources for awareness creation, screening, early detection and treatment of cancer.
He said that the ministry was committed to taking the fight to the next level in line with the agenda of the current administration to achieve Universal Health Coverage.
On his part, Director and Head of Department of Hospital Services in the ministry, Dr Joseph Amedu, said the equipment installation at the seven institutions mentioned by the minister had reached 80 per cent completion.
Amedu said the centres would soon be inaugurated and open for the treatment of cancer- related illnesses.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that cancer is responsible for 72,000 deaths in Nigeria every year with an estimated 102,000 new cases of cancer annually, 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 the 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.
