Chaturvedi while speaking to journalists on Thursday during a press conference in Abuja said the country records at least 119, 000 new cases of different types of cancer every year.
It has been revealed that more than 100 Nigerians are estimated to travel to India every year to undergo cancer treatments.
This data, released by Mr Amit Chaturvedi, of the Apollo Proton Cancer Center, confirms the increase in the rate of cancer cases and the attendant medical tourism associated with it
Chaturvedi while speaking to journalists on Thursday during a press conference in Abuja said the country records at least 119, 000 new cases of different types of cancer every year.
He said, “Every year Nigeria has 119, 000 new cancer cases and these are just those who are diagnosed and registered in some government hospitals.
“This does not include those who do not even have access to medical facilities.
“We have been treating Nigerians for so many years now. Every year, Apollo receives at least 100 cases from Nigeria in India. But our attention is not to take patients from Nigeria to India.
Earlier, Dr. Sapna Nangia, a Senior Consultant Radiation Oncologist who called for regular medical checkups to aid the early diagnosis of cancer, said Apollo is currently planning to have some services in Nigeria.
Also speaking, a Nigerian medical doctor, Laz Eze said there was a need for collaboration to “ensure that Nigeria’s capacity as a country to diagnose cancer much earlier and also diagnose it accurately is improved”.
He cited a ‘cancer’ case in the Benue State University Teaching Hospital where someone was diagnosed of “having breast cancer, went through the entire treatment, had surgery where the breast was taken off but it was later realized through pathology results that she never had cancer in the first place.
“So these are things we are trying to prevent by having advanced technology, medical care”.
