The Lagos State Governor, Babatude Sanwo-Olu has restated its commitment to cancer care in the state as the government is set to launch a radiotherapy mini accelerator centre in General Hospital, Lagos.
Sanwo-Olu said this at the 57th Annual Scientific Conference organised by the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientific of Nigeria, Lagos State Chapter, (AMLSN) held at LCCI, Lagos.
Tagged: Breast Cancer Survival: Interrogating the Determinant brought together medical experts, laboratory scientists’ pharmacists, and oncologists. It’s featured: Metastatic Breast Cancer: Symptoms, diagnosis and outlook, the import of tumor markers and Haematological changes in early diagnosis of Cancer and their management, medical imaging in diagnosis and management of Breast Cancer.
He said that breast cancer is a big issue in Nigeria as it remains the number one killer cancer among women worldwide. “The government is doing a lot to manage oncological disease generally and breast cancer is a top priority. The state government has established centre in Lagos State Teaching Hospital which is doing very well. Right now, we are in the process of establishing a radiotherapy mini accelerator in LASU and General Hospital, Lagos.
Sanwo-Olu noted that we are connecting with international agencies to ensure that we get the best treatment for cancer of the cervix and any other cancer for that matter. We have another centre like the one in LASU coming up in General Hospital, Lagos to address the sheer number of people going down with this disease.
He called for regular breast self-examination, clinical breast examination, and imaging which helps to detect breast cancer at a very early stage when signs and symptoms are not present.
In his presentation, the Consultant Clinical and Radiation Oncologist, Dr Muhammad Habeebu called for policies to improve the working conditions of health workers and reverse the brain drain to have ample health specialists enough to implement standard care including multidisciplinary Team Approach to breast cancer treatment and improved survival.
Earlier, in his words, the Chairman, AMLSN, Lagos State, Olumide Fadipe said that the conference is set out to bring up academic cum professional discourse on trending health issues/challenges, be it of local or global relevance.