The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, on Monday said it records no fewer than 400 cases of breast cancer annually.
An expert in cancer at the hospital, Dr. Olayinka Ademola who made this known said that the hospital had concluded plans to begin free breast and prostate cancer test for its staff beginning from February as one of the ways to curb the menace among the staff.
Ademola while speaking at a program to herald the hospital’s 2018 World Cancer Day, said that at least 50 breast cancer patients were attended to every week at the hospital’s surgical outpatient department.
He noted that there were six different types of breast cancers, declaring that with personalised or precision medicine at the hospital, cancer treatment at the hospital had changed dramatically.
Ademola said “Precision medicine had helped to the individualised care of cancer so that to a fine degree, we can know what treatment a patient will benefit from. It is not all gloomy that if you have breast cancer, you will die”.
The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Professor Temitope Alonge, while announcing that work was ongoing for the hospital to have a cancer centre, declared that some of the hospital staff had also developed cancer, thus the steps to ensure early cancer detection and treatment among its workforce.
While the free prostate cancer testing is to start middle of the year 2018 for men above age 40 years, Alonge declared that 26.3 percent of breast cancer death cases in the hospital were in the 40 to 49 age group.
On prevention of liver cancers, he said the hospital was also embarking on free hepatitis treatment for its staffs to ensure those with hepatitis, a precursor for liver cirrhosis and cancer, does not end up with cancer.
Alonge, however, solicited for increased support for the prompt completion and equipping of the hospitals’ cancer centre, declaring that over N5 billion would be required.
Head of Department of Radiation Oncology, Professor Adeniyi Adenipekun said between two to three new cases of prostate cancer come to the hospital’s radiotherapy department for treatment per day, being the only major functional centre in Nigeria.
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