Some cancer patients will have only one treatment, while others will have a combination of treatments, such as surgery with
chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, a procedure in which a surgeon removes the cancer from the body.
READ ALSO:
See How to Do Storytelling With Your Images: 8 Useful Tips
The different treatment options are Radiation Therapy, which involves the use of high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours, while chemotherapy is treatment that uses drugs to kill cancer cells.
READ ALSO:
Governorship Tour: Gen. Ijioma Rounds 17 LGAs, Solicits For APGA Ticket | DETAILS
Immunotherapy is another type of cancer treatment that helps the immune system to fight cancer, while targeted therapy focuses on changes in cancer cells that help them to grow, divide, and spread.
READ ALSO:
Chief Chinasa Celebrates Eze K.O. Ikonte on His Birthday, Lauds Leadership of Uzuakoli Monarch
Hormone therapy is another treatment option that slows or stops the growth of breast and prostate cancers that use hormones to grow, while stem cell transplant is a procedure that restores blood-forming stem cells in cancer patients who have had theirs destroyed by very high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
READ ALSO:
Understanding DG's alert mantra in NYSC
However, there is also precision medicine which helps doctors to select treatments that are most likely to help patients based on genetic understanding of the disease, including how genetic changes in a person's cancer are identified and used to select treatment option.
READ ALSO:
ARMY RECRUITMENT: See List Of Nationwide Centres For Screening Exercise
Even though there are different treatment options, the issue of decaying, obsolete, unserviceable and in some cases the lack of equipment and drugs in hospitals and clinics across the country, as well as the cost force many patients to seek for help from other sources or remain helpless.
READ ALSO:
Nigeria President Gets Queries for AI-Generated 'Lunch With Rwanda's President in Paris' Post
The issue of availability, accessibility and cost of treatment are essential for the functioning of any health facility offering cancer treatment toward providing quality healthcare for patients
READ ALSO:
Updated: Insecurity and What Buhari Should Do
This is because to attend to any patient, a doctor requires basic equipment to diagnose the ailment before prescribing medication, or treatment option.
READ ALSO:
Controversy Trailing 2023 Zoning In Abia: Gov. Ikpeazu Finally Reacts | DETAILS
Dr Abdulrazzaq Oyesegun, an Oncologist and Clinical Consultant, Oncology, National Hospital, Abuja (NHA) told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said NHA has up-to-date equipment for cancer treatment and management, and advised anyone who noticed any unusual growth or lump to go to hospital for early detection and prompt treatment.
READ ALSO:
POISONOUS 'PONMO' NOW IN MARKET, LAGOS GOVT WARNS CONSUMERS
He explained that all cancer equipment in the hospital were functioning, noting that the availability made it possible for many people not to travel abroad for treatment.
READ ALSO:
From Kankara boys to Kangara abduction: A slap on the face of Nigeria | READ DETAILS
He said that the only challenge was the lack of manpower, as many doctors leave the country in search of better opportunities elsewhere.
READ ALSO:
What is climate change? A really simple guide
Some patients at Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH) Park Lane have urged the management of the hospital to provide essential healthcare facilities for proper healthcare delivery services.
READ ALSO:
EXCLUSIVE: Nigeria responds to new Ebola outbreak | READ DETAILS
They expressed worry that a teaching hospital such as ESUTH has no functional modern health equipment.
READ ALSO:
See How to Do Storytelling With Your Images: 8 Useful Tips
Mrs Josephine Ozor, a patient, said that the mammogram machine in the hospital had stopped functioning for a long time.
READ ALSO:
Governorship Tour: Gen. Ijioma Rounds 17 LGAs, Solicits For APGA Ticket | DETAILS
Ozor added that her mother was not able to go through breast examination when she came for breast cancer screening, explaining that "when my mother was referred to come for breast cancer screening from my town, we were surprised that a teaching hospital like ESUTH did not have a functional machine for breast cancer patients.ÔÇØ
READ ALSO:
Chief Chinasa Celebrates Eze K.O. Ikonte on His Birthday, Lauds Leadership of Uzuakoli Monarch
Another patient, Mr Okwy Ibeafor, said that the increased number of patients that visited the hospital on daily basis was enough to provide all the doctors and other health workers needed to save lives.
READ ALSO:
Understanding DG's alert mantra in NYSC
"Patients in this ESUTH are always referred to private hospitals for medical examinations which ought not to be.
READ ALSO:
ARMY RECRUITMENT: See List Of Nationwide Centres For Screening Exercise
"It should be a referral health facility, which should be from private to teaching hospital because teaching hospital itself is a tertiary health facility,ÔÇØ he said.
READ ALSO:
Nigeria President Gets Queries for AI-Generated 'Lunch With Rwanda's President in Paris' Post
A Radiologist and a staff of ESUTH, who pleaded anonymity confirmed that the mammogram machine was not functional, adding that the management was planning to put it into use as soon as possible.
READ ALSO:
Updated: Insecurity and What Buhari Should Do
Meanwhile, the Chairman Nigeria Medical Association, Enugu State chapter, Dr Ike Okwesiri, said that poorly equipped hospitals were common in the country not just in Enugu, and urged government to assist.
READ ALSO:
Controversy Trailing 2023 Zoning In Abia: Gov. Ikpeazu Finally Reacts | DETAILS
Okwesiri said that most individuals did not get job satisfaction in poorly equipped hospitals.
READ ALSO:
POISONOUS 'PONMO' NOW IN MARKET, LAGOS GOVT WARNS CONSUMERS
He said that the high price of some health equipment was one of the major challenges that caused many hospitals not to have essential and functional tools.
READ ALSO:
From Kankara boys to Kangara abduction: A slap on the face of Nigeria | READ DETAILS
Other challenges, the chairman listed, were difficulty in accessing bank loan in the country and epileptic power supply.
READ ALSO:
What is climate change? A really simple guide
On his part, the Health Manager, Enugu State Hospitals Management Board, Dr Okechukwu Ossai, told NAN that the state government had completed plans to create cancer screening centres in the three senatorial zones of the state.
READ ALSO:
EXCLUSIVE: Nigeria responds to new Ebola outbreak | READ DETAILS
Ossai explained that the centres would be equipped with MRI machines, mammographic machines and other health facilities that would help in proper healthcare delivery services in the state.
READ ALSO:
See How to Do Storytelling With Your Images: 8 Useful Tips
In Anambra, Dr Vincent Okpala, Anambra State Commissioner for Health says Gov Willie Obiano-led administration is doing everything possible to reposition health facilities in the state.
READ ALSO:
Governorship Tour: Gen. Ijioma Rounds 17 LGAs, Solicits For APGA Ticket | DETAILS
He told NAN in Awka that government had done so much to upgrade the facilities at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku Awka.
READ ALSO:
Chief Chinasa Celebrates Eze K.O. Ikonte on His Birthday, Lauds Leadership of Uzuakoli Monarch
Dr Basil Nwankwo, Chief Medical Director of COOUTH said a number of equipment like the 64 slide CT scan machine, Mammography machine for testing breast, digital x-ray machine were being installed at COOUTH as well as a Mother and Child Centre.
READ ALSO:
Understanding DG's alert mantra in NYSC
In Onitsha, NAN investigation reveals that the General Hospital had been locked while nurses who were working there, had been dispersed to other wards since June 2019 and the hospital lacked Mammography machine.
READ ALSO:
ARMY RECRUITMENT: See List Of Nationwide Centres For Screening Exercise
In Abia, the Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Dr Azubuike Onyebuchi, said the second Sovereign Wealth Laboratory in Nigeria, being put up at the hospital, "would transform the hospital to one of the most sophisticated diagnostic centres in the world.ÔÇØ
READ ALSO:
Nigeria President Gets Queries for AI-Generated 'Lunch With Rwanda's President in Paris' Post
Onyebuchi said that the project had reached 95 per cent completion and would likely be inaugurated before the end of January or first week of February, 2020.
READ ALSO:
Updated: Insecurity and What Buhari Should Do
The medical director said that the installation and test run of the equipment as well as training of personnel to man the facility were at their final stages.
READ ALSO:
Controversy Trailing 2023 Zoning In Abia: Gov. Ikpeazu Finally Reacts | DETAILS
In Ebonyi, Dr Emeka Ogah, Chief Medical Director of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital (AE-FUTHA) said that services in the hospital had improved to compete with best hospitals in the world.
