Executive Director,
Women Health and Action Research Centre (WHARC), Prof. Friday Okonofua, has called on the government to create more awareness on cancers, their risk factors and prevention.
Okonofua, who is a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, made the call in an interview on Tuesday in Benin.
He said that proper education on the various types of cancers was necessary to reduce the disease burden in the country.
“For cancer in Nigeria, prevention is better than cure. Government should promote early diagnosis and prompt treatment. “Today, we have many facilities to do cancer diagnosis,” the don said.
“But there is the need to put them to practice, to give information to people so that they can seek early investigation and treatment which is lacking.”  “One area where the government needs to do more is in information dissemination about cancers and its prevention so that people can take individual steps to make early diagnosis and treatment. “Many people who die of cancer died because diagnosis was made too late.
“The important way to treat cancer is to prevent it in the first instance and secondly, to make an early detection,” he said.
Okonofua said that any cancer could be diagnosed into stages zero, one, two, three and four.
“There is what we call stage zero; this is when the cancer is just growing. In stage one, the cancer is still very minimal, and then it goes to stages two and three. “Stage four is the most serious stage and most cancers in stages three and four are difficult to treat. Cancers are better treated at stages zero and one,” he emphasised.
The professor recalled that some studies conducted in Nigeria sometimes ago, found that about 90 per cent of cancers that come to the hospitals were in stages three and four.
“Whereas for the same cancer in the U.S. and U.K., many of them go for treatment around stage zero or one. “Once they feel unusual swollen somewhere in their bodies or abnormal breathing or pain, they go for examination and cancer is easier to manage at an early stage,”, he said.
Okonufia, who said that though cancer treatments were available in the country but not cheap, noted that government could help to reduce the cost of treatment, especially cancer screening.
He said that preventive measures included avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, life style modification, screening for Hepatitis B and regular examination for people with family history of cancers.
He advised the public, especially the poor to take issues relating to their health serious and be willing to spend their money on protecting their health rather than engage in unnecessary expenditures.