Cancer belongs to a group of diseases involving abnormal cells growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Medical reports from different parts of the globe disclosed that there are more than one hundred types of cancer in the world.

Cancer is one of the major causes of death globally. The World Health Organization, WHO, said recently that the number of deaths worldwide from cancer had increased from five point two million people in 1990 to eight point two million people in 2012.

It added that if the incidence of cancer continued to grow  at the reported rate, the number of deaths worldwide from cancer would increase to thirteen point one million by 2030.WHO however, noted that forty percent of deaths from cancer are preventable.

In Nigeria, according to the organization, forty-one thousand cancer related deaths were recorded in 2018, out of the one hundred and sixty-six thousand recorded cases in the country. This makes Nigeria one of the countries that have the highest cancer mortality in the world.

The most common types of cancers in Nigeria are breast cancer, prostrate cancer, cervical cancer and blood cancer like leukemia.

Experts pointed out factors that drive cancer in Nigeria and most African countries to include; tobacco intake, sedentary lifestyle, alcohol consumption, unhealthy lifestyle, and unhygienic environment.

They also identified late diagnosis, lack of medical care, poverty, low governmental investment in the fight against cancer and low skilled health care providers as some of the challenges facing cancer patients.

According to reports, the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, had called on Nigerians to always engage in physical exercise to reduce the risk of having cancer, adding that any form of physical activity that is consistent would promote healthy living, reduce obesity and sedentary lifestyle.

Professor Adewole stressed the need for individuals to make healthy life style choices, noting that early detection of symptoms and signs of cancer was key to easier treatment and cure.

An Oncologist, Dr Thomas Anyanwu, lent his voice by saying that Nigeria as a country, needed to do more to improve on its poor standard of cancer investigating and treatment. He called for installations of state of the art machines like Magnetic Resonance Imagery (MRI), Scanners, Position Emission Tomography (PET) Scans, bone Scans and high quality Computer Tomography (CT) Scanners.

There is therefore urgent need for action and personal commitment that will lead to powerful progress in reducing global impact of cancer. Join the campaign today.

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