Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed sickness in women, but Nigerians should stop seeing the disease as “women’s thing”, an advocacy group has warned, saying that men can also have it.
Emeka Nwagboso, acting executive director of Project PINK BLUE, said 31 women/men die every day from breast cancer in Nigeria.
He warned that men also have breast cancer, saying that they have seen many men who are down with breast cancer.
“There is a need for everyone to get involved in breast cancer awareness. We need to save our men and women from breast cancer deaths. It’s not a woman’s thing,” Nwagboso said at the Pink October Walk in commemoration of International Breast Cancer Awareness Month in Lagos.
Cancer is now a critical public health problem in Nigeria with 115,950 new cases of the disease and 70,327 cancer deaths in 2018, and 102,079 new cases of cancer and 72,000 cancer deaths in 2012 comparatively cancer incidence and deaths are on the increase in Nigeria (World Health Organization (WHO)/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Nigeria, with an estimated 26,310 new cases and 11,564 deaths in 2018.
Nwagboso further said that women and men should examine their armpits for early detection of spreading cancer cells stating that it is on this premise, that we are appealing to the Lagos State government to make history again and save millions of Lagosians from late detection of breast cancer by introducing mandatory state-wide breast cancer screenings in all the local governments in Lagos state.
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“Believe me, once Lagos introduces this, many states will follow and we can reduce late detection of breast cancer by 50 percent,” he said.
Project PINK BLUE- Health and Psychological Trust Centre is a leading cancer fighting non-governmental organization in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Khadijat Banwo-Fatai, 10-year breast cancer survivor and board supervisor, Project PINK BLUE, said that several years ago, the government established mandatory HIV/AIDS screenings in all facilities. Once someone visited the healthcare centre, he or she immediately undergwent HIV/AIDS screenings.
“If we apply same method to breast cancer, we can reduce breast cancer deaths. As at today, over 80 percent of breast cancer cases presented to doctors are at late stages 3 and 4 and at late stages of breast cancer, it is only palliative care that the patients can reduce. I had breast cancer 10 years ago and I am alive today, because it was discovered early,” she said.
