The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) joined the rest of the world to celebrate World Cancer Day on Monday, 6th of February. Led by Dr. Temitope Olatunji-Agunbiade, a Consultant Radiation and Clinical Oncologist, LASUTH, the Oncology Department began the day with an awareness walk and a courtesy visit to the members of the top management.
Speaking during an interview, the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Prof. Adetokunbo O. Fabamwo, expatiated on the four levels of cancer care; Surgical Operations, Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy, Rehabilitation Care. He explained that one of the care gaps in cancer care is inadequate facilities to offer all these level of care and scarcity of Oncology Surgeons to carry out surgical operations on cancer patients who are in need of it.
Prof. Fabamwo said that, “in LASUTH, we have almost all the parameters of cancer care except the Radiotherapy, which is already in the pipeline.
Plans are already ongoing for a radiotherapy facility to be located in LASUTH”, which is one of the steps the management of the hospital is taking to ‘close the care gap’, being the theme of the World Cancer Day. He said that the hospital is fortunate to have both general and specialized surgeons in the Oncology department, as he stated that the department is a vibrant one where chemotherapy processes are seamlessly administered to patents.
The CMD concluded by advising the Government to ensure continuity on creating screening opportunities, providing facilities for levels of cancer care and organizing educational programmes and outreaches. He also advised the citizens to take advantage of all screening opportunities.
According to Dr. Temitope Olatunji-Agunbiade, who is a Consultant Radiation and Clinical Oncologist, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and about 10 million people die from cancer every year. She cited that “over 40% of cancer related deaths could be prevented because they are associated with modifiable risk factors like smoking and alcohol intake, physical inactivity and poor diet.
About 30% of all cancer related death can be prevented through routine screening, early detection and treatment.” She gave further insight about the Day, saying that it is a global initiative in which the entire world unite in the fight against cancer epidemic, which holds 4th of February annually. ‘Close the care gap’ is the theme for year 2023 and it aims at addressing the gap in cancer care.
Dr. Olatunji-Agunbiade explained that people encounter barriers in relation to income, level of education and geographical location, and as a result face discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, age, disability and lifestyle, which makes these group of people more likely to have increased exposure to a host of risk factors.
The Oncology specialist, said, cancer is a global epidemic and more pronounced in low and middle income countries which accounts for over 70% of cancer death, hence, the crucial need to close the care gap by ensuring that the populace are aware of these gaps which exist in our society and also allow equity in access to health care irrespective of the status.
She advised that the government also need to make policies that will enable equity in access to care and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) can also help with patient navigation as well as creating awareness to achieve early cancer detection and treatment even in rural communities by educating the public about cancer prevention, equipping the healthcare professionals with skills and knowledge, strengthening primary health care centres in communities and integrating vaccination and screening at these sites, addressing through policy and programmes some of the social and economic factors that is impacting people`s health and health seeking behaviour, increasing resources dedicated to cancer care and research, implementing national cancer control plan for our country Nigeria and getting buy-in from the state governments for effective implementation.
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