Late detection makes cancer a death sentence in Nigeria

An expert as described late detection as the reason why cancer is a death sentence in Nigeria. According to Dr Femi Olaleye, Medical Director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, cancer is fatal in Nigeria because of the non-existence of population screening initiatives.

“The incidence of breast cancer is one in 25, but because we don’t screen our population, it’s actually a death sentence. In other parts of the world, once you’re a woman, that one in 25 is picked up early, procedures are done to quickly stop that cancer from killing her. So, it doesn’t kill as much as it is killing here,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

With early detection, he said many families in Nigeria wouldn't have experienced the hardships they battle with when a loved on is suffering from cancer.

He said: “Here in Nigeria, most of the diagnoses are made when it is too late, thereby leading to several needless and painful deaths of our beloved moms, sisters, aunts, friends, colleagues.

“Breast cancer is currently the most common cancer in Nigeria. One or two in every 25 Nigerian women are at risk of breast cancer, but higher risks exist for women who are older than 45, older than 30 at birth of their first child, and women with family history.”

He enjoined women to go for regular screening of the breasts and cervix in order to prevent death.