Centre to Build 350-bed Facility to Increase Access to Cancer Treatment

Chiamaka Ozulumba

The African Cancer Centre (ACC) is set to build a 350-bed facility for cancer research, diagnosis, training and treatment as a means to improve access to cancer treatment in Lagos State and the country.

The organisation, which was founded by the late Prof. Olufemi Williams, appointed two financial advisers – PAC Capital Limited and Greenwich Merchant Bank – to raise and arrange $38.3 million funds for the first phase.

The chairman, Mr. Adekunle Olumide, who spoke at the signature ceremony on Thursday, said the organisation’s mission is to increase access to cancer treatment and prevention through early detection and diagnosis.

He said: “Nigerians are aware of the parlous state of cancer management in Nigeria. It was estimated in 2015 that one in every three Nigerians will develop cancer before they die at age 80 or more, suggesting that about 60 million Nigerians will die from the deadly disease. The figures in 2022 will be more depressing.”

Olumide recalled that owing to poor cancer management in Nigeria the Founder and Director of the ACC, the late Prof. Olufemi Williams, conceived and spearheaded the establishment of the centre.

In his remarks, he outlined that ACC is envisioned to be a world-class 350-bed centre for cancer treatment, research and training that will serve Nigeria, the West African sub-region and beyond.

The mission of the centre, he listed, “will be accomplished by improving access to treatment, prevention through early detection and diagnosis, and quality care through training, cancer education, greater public awareness and enlightenment.

‘There are a number of cancer hospitals and treatment units springing up across the continent, but let me assure you that this will be a one-stop centre for cancer treatment in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.”

A professor of radiation therapy and oncology, Francis Durosinmi-Etti, at the event, said peoples’ lifestyle was contributing to the increase in cancer cases.

He said, “Basically the increase in cancer cases is because people are more aware unlike in the past when people think cancer is an attack.

“These days, people are coming out, even people who have been cured are happy to come out and declare that cancer is no longer a death sentence.”

Durosinmi-Etti also acknowledged that publicity on cancer is making people come out for early diagnosis and treatment while noting that the population seems to be aging unlike in the past.

He emphasised: “Of course, you intend to get more cancer in elderly people. That does not mean children cannot have cancer. Some of these cancers run in families.”

According to the chairman, lifestyle practice is also contributing to the increase in cancer cases. “We are all westernised now. We eat all sorts of junk foods and all these result in one cancer or the other.”

However, he admitted that the likelihood of surviving cancer now has improved compared to the past with early diagnosis and treatment, improved radiotherapy services and the rest.