World Cancer Day 2020 -A Renewed Call For Personal And Collective Action

By Dr. Abia Nzelu

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are now responsible for majority of global deaths, with cancer being a leading cause of death and the single most important barrier to increasing life expectancy in every country of the world in the 21st century.

To stem the cancer scourge calls for urgent, concerted and consistent action by everyone in the fight against, NCDs with cancer prevention and treatment as the fulcrum (known as the BIG War Against Cancer). Cancer is a very apt fulcrum because its risk factors include other killer diseases, such as Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, renal diseases, obesity, malaria, hepatitis, Human papilloma virus infection and HIV/AIDS as well as habits like smoking, physical inactivity and excessive alcohol intake. These risk factors are common to other NCDs.

World Cancer Day (WCD) is a global advocacy day dedicated to amplify the call for action and to rally the international community to end the injustice of preventable suffering from cancer. It is marked on February 4 every year. 2020 marks the midway point of the 3-year ‘I Am and I Will’ campaign. ‘I Am and I Will’ is an empowering call-to-action urging for personal commitment and represents the power of individual action taken now to impact the future.

ALSO READ: Expert Set To X-Ray Potentials Of Nigeria’s Industrial Hub As Nnewi Investment Summit Holds Feb. 6

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, there are over 18 million new cancer cases globally and 9.6 million cancer deaths every year (about 26,000 cancer deaths daily) and this number is projected to rise. Furthermore, cancer is the most expensive disease globally and drives the poor and vulnerable victims deeper into poverty. The global economic toll of cancer in 2010 was 1.16 trillion dollars. Sadly, 70% of cancer deaths occur in developing nations like Nigeria. Little wonder then, that Nigeria not only has the seventh lowest life expectancy globally, but is now also the poverty capital of the world.

Every day in Nigeria, 32 women die of breast cancer, 28 women die of cervical cancer and 16 men die from prostate cancer.  This holocaust of untimely death is due to late detection and inadequate treatment as a result of poor infrastructure and lack of organized system of preventive health care. For instance, whilst India has over 200 Comprehensive Cancer Centres, Nigeria has none. In addition, Nigeria has less than ten radiotherapy machines to cater for its teeming population against the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of at least one radiotherapy machine for every one million people. To make matters worse, most of these machines are outmoded and are not functional. As a result, Nigerians spend over $200 million annually to seek treatment abroad – more than thrice the amount needed to build a world-class Comprehensive Cancer Centre (CCC) locally!

To address this cancer problem, the National Cancer Prevention Programme (NCPP), a nongovernmental initiative of mass medical mission pioneered community-based mass cervical cancer screening across the country, in 2007 and later incorporated other cancers. Since then NCPP has screened, vaccinated and treated over 200,000 people and through the intensive awareness campaign has reached millions with awareness, in spite of its limited resources. This has contributed to a reduction of the overall cancer mortality in Nigeria from 240 deaths daily to 196 deaths daily between 2008 and 2018 (WHO data). Latest data from WHO also shows a reduction in breast cancer deaths from 40 daily to 32 daily between 2012 and 2018 as well as a decrease in prostate cancer death from 26 daily to 16 daily between 2012 and 2018.

However, as we enter this new decade, there is need to escalate efforts to establish the needed infrastructure for equitable cancer care across the country and to ensure progressive and sustained reduction in the overall cancer statistics as well as that of the specific common cancers. For instance, with regards to cervical cancer there was an initial reduction in cervical cancer deaths in Nigeria from 26 daily to 22 daily between 2008 and 2012 but the 2018 data by WHO showed a recent increase in cervical cancer deaths to 28 daily. This increase could be a result of increasing awareness and diagnosis but without commensurate increase in access to prevention, especially in the rural areas. The human misery and death of Nigerian women from cervical cancer is totally unnecessary, since cervical cancer is virtually 100% preventable. In the western world, cervical cancer is a disappearing disease and is on the verge of being completely eliminated.

The good news is that NCPP has scaled up its effort by deploying Mobile Cancer Centres (a.k.a. the PinkCruise) for free mass cancer prevention for the underprivileged masses. The PinkCruise contains facilities for carrying out screening for cancers in both males and females including on-the-spot treatment of cervical precancerous lesions in the communities.

Groups and Communities can invite the PinkCruise to carry out these interventions at their doorsteps for FREE, by sending an email to info@pinkcruise.org so they could be included in the year round schedule of free outreaches.

To fight eye cancers and tackle the huge burden of needless blindness, free preventive eye care (known as Mission PinkVISSION) has been integrated into Mission PinkCruise.

Apart from the community-based free outreaches, free screening is also offered at the NCPP Lagos centre, 31 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, every Wednesday (Wellness Wednesday) and Friday (Family Friday). Every last Saturday of the month there a Vaccine Fair aimed at promoting access to both the quadrivalent and 9-valent types of Gardasil. Gardasil is a vaccine which can prevent about thirteen types of cancer and also prevent benign lesions like genital wart and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) caused by Human papilloma virus (HPV). The vaccine is recommended for both males and females from the age of nine years.

To mark the 2020 World Cancer Day, a two-day outreach (Mission PinkCruise and Mission PinkVISSION) is scheduled to hold in two communities of Ikorodu, a suburban part of Lagos State, Nigeria. The details are as follows:

1. Date: Saturday, February 1, 2020) || Venue: Ajegunle- Agbede Transformer, Ikorodu || Time: 7am
2. Date: Sunday, February 2, 2020 || Venue: Owutu Agric, Ikorodu Lagos State || Time: 8am. All are welcome!

We use the opportunity of this World Cancer Day to seek the support of all stakeholders in the efforts to expand the reach of the mobile system of preventive health care and to establish Comprehensive Cancer Centres for the optimal care of confirmed cancer cases in Nigeria. We also call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to support the incorporation of Gardasil (quadrivalent and 9-valent HPV anticancer vaccine) into the National Programme on Immunization.

I am and I will do everything within my power to tackle the menace of preventable suffering and death from cancer and its related diseases. Will you?