The Nigeria National Cancer Prevention and Control Plan states cancer is responsible for 72,000 deaths in the country every year with an estimated 102,000 new cases annually.
It stated this in its 2018-2022 report.
However, the Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Jafaru Momoh, said on Wednesday that there are only three functional radiotherapy centres for the treatment of cancer in the country.
He said the hospital he heads, which has two linac radiotherapy machines, only the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), which is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has two of the machines.
February 4 each year is marked as World Cancer Day. The 2021 theme is “I am and I will”.
The WHO defines cancer as a large group of diseases that can start in almost any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably, go beyond their usual boundaries to invade adjoining parts of the body and/or spread to other organs.
