LUTH Breast Cancer Clinic records 1000 patients in one year

Except urgent steps are taking by government to address the cancer burden in the country, the disease will continue to destroy lives of many Nigerians – especially women with breast cancer as the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, says it has recorded only about 1000 breast cancer patients in its One-Stop Breast Clinic in the last one year.
Apart from an indication that the disease is on the rise in Nigeria, the figure no doubt, calls for concern in a country where treating the disease is faced with lack of adequate diagnostic and treatment centers as well as the dearth of qualified personnel, thereby reducing the chances of surviving cancer in the country.
A Consultant Clinical and Radiation Oncologist, LUTH, Dr Adewunmi Alabi, disclosed this at an event to commemorate the Breast Cancer Awareness Month usually held in October.
The event which held in Lagos recently with the theme, “The Journey So Far”, was also used to mark the one year anniversary of the Breast Clinic and Conferment of Distinguished Service Award to deserving staff of the clinic.
Alabi, who is the Breast Clinic Coordinator, said the clinic was established to enable patients especially the indigent ones have access to comprehensive and uninterrupted multi-disciplinary cancer care under one roof.
Additionally, Alabi said LUTH’s One-Stop Breast Clinic with Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) was set up to equip patients with vocational skills apart from giving them hope.
She explained: “The clinic was established last year with the aim of helping patients have accessible and prompt treatment as well. We help women make their diagnosis and to cross bottle-necks that cause delay in their treatment. And we ensure that they are treated as at when due without them having late-stage diseases, morbidity or mortality as the case may be.”
She went on:”We have achieved a lot in the last one year because we have treated over 1000 breast cancer patients and have also screened 500 women against breast cancer.
“We have free screening facilities for our patients and for indigent patients who could not afford the cost of the treatment, we link them up with NGOs that will enable them access care by providing them with funds.”
Also, Chief Medical Director, Prof. Chris Bode, LUTH, said: “It is a marvellous idea having this one-stop clinic for the treatment of breast cancer. It has worked very well.
“We are already encouraging other treatments in other departments to start their own one-stop clinics; it is not going to be limited to breast or cancer,’’ Bode said.
The disease Specialist and immediate past Chairman of Cancer Control Committee for Nigeria, Prof. Abayomi Durosinmi-Etti, also applauded the OSBC, describing it as a novel idea.
According to him, it should be encouraged all over Nigeria and other parts of the world primarily because it takes a lot of pressure off cancer patients.
“Also, because it has a patient navigation, they are able to see the specialists they might need, from the surgeon to the oncologist and pathologist.
“In other words, all the various specialists who are involved in treating any cancer patient are under one roof.
“This is a major step both for the patient’s good and overall health care in the country,’’ Durosinmi-Etti said.
On the challenges in breast cancer management, Dr Caleb Yakubu, Consultant Radiologist, LUTH, said: “The challenges are enormous: cancer care is not cheap and healthcare must be given priority in Nigeria.
“Treatment of cancer is not just surgery and giving drugs; there is also radiotherapy machine that is needed and it is an expensive machine that very few centres have.
“We need machines to equip the centre and for the cost of drugs to be made cheaper,’’ Yakubu said.
Prof. Akin Osibogun, Consultant Public Health Physician and a former CMD of LUTH, called for more awareness of cancer among Nigerians.
The climax of the event was conferment of award on deserving staff and NGOs including Prof. Akin Osibogun, the immediate past LUTH CMD, who initiated the clinic and Prof. Chris Bode, the current LUTH CMD, under whose administration the clinic started.