The disease ‘cancer’ is very scary, but the scenario could be more scary if you or any of your loved one is being diagnosed with the disease. According to health experts, most cancers are preventable through lifestyle changes, early detection and treatment. AJUMA EDWINA OGIRI report on the need for prevention of this deadly disease.
According the World Health Organization (WHO), annually there are 14 million new cases of cancer and over 8 million people die from cancer, with 60% of deaths in Africa, Asia and Central and South America; at least 1.6 million or 20% of these are tobacco-related.
To raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection and treatment, World Cancer Day is celebrated on February 4 every year. The theme for this year is- “Not Beyond Us”, highlights the fact that there are many practical things that can be done as individuals and as communities to harness and mobilise these solutions and catalyse positive change.
According to WHO report, the most common causes of cancer death are cancers of:
lung (1.59 million deaths), liver (745 000 deaths), stomach (723 000 deaths), colorectal (694 000 death), breast (521 000 deaths) and oesophageal cancer (400 000 deaths), adding that Cancer mortality can be reduced if cases are detected and treated early.
According to WHO, There are 2 components of early detection efforts accoding to the report. They are;
Early diagnosis
The awareness of early signs and symptoms (for cancer types such as skin, cervical, breast, colorectal and oral) in order to get them diagnosed and treated at early stage. Early diagnosis is particularly relevant when there is no effective screening methods or – as in many low-resource settings; no screening and treatment interventions implemented. In absence of any early detection or screening and treatment intervention, patients are diagnosed at very late stages when curative treatment is no longer an option.
Screening
Screening aims to identify individuals with abnormalities suggestive of a specific cancer or pre-cancer and refer them promptly for treatment or when feasible for diagnosis and treatment. Screening programmes are especially effective for frequent cancer types for which cost-effective, affordable, acceptable and accessible screening tests are available to the majority of the population at risk. However, delaying the treatment can worsen the condition thereby resulting in cancer deaths.
In many countries, negative public perceptions and stigma associated with cancer stifle informed public discussion and perpetuate misconceptions about this disease. This obstructs efforts to raise awareness about cancer prevention, healthy behaviours and seeking early diagnosis for signs and symptoms. Individuals and communities need to be made aware that at least one third of the most common cancers can be prevented through reducing alcohol consumption, healthier diets and improved physical activity levels. If smoking is included the figure is about 50%.
Empowering people to make healthy choices and reducing the social and environmental risk factors for cancer, are key to achieving the global goal of reducing premature deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 25% by 2025 and reaching the targets of the World Cancer
Declaration. The World Cancer Declaration Targets to be achieved by 2025.
For governments, investing in prevention of cancer is cheaper than dealing with the consequences. Whilst the economic cost of cancer is estimated to reach US$458 billion per year by 2030, population-based measures to reduce risk factors for all NCDs including cancer are estimated at just US$2 billion per year for all low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Speaking at a workshop yesterday in Abuja to mark the world cancer day celebration in Nigeria, the Chief Medical Director, National Hospital Abuja, Dr. Jaf Momoh, said “from the age of 40 and above, we advice men to screen for prostrate cancer; atleast once or twice a year, if your doctor so recommends.
“Cancer is not beyond us, cancer is within us if we screen early, and that is the message of this workshop. Early screening is what will make the cancer to be within us; which means we can catch it early, deal with it and people can be cured. So people do not necessarily have to die of cancer.
“Cancer has always been there, people are now doing more test to detect it. Secondly environmental issues have come to play, we are now eating what we didn’t used to eat, we are now exposed to somany chemicals that we were not exposed to. These are some of the things that are being speculated as being responsible for the increase incidence of cancer in Nigeria.”
