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FG deploys multidisciplinary approach for cancer treatment

In efforts to ensure a holistic treatment of cancers in Nigeria, the Federal Government is deploying a multidisciplinary approach in the treatment of patients.

The National Coordinator, National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP), Dr Okpako Okpikpi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

According to Okpikpi, cancer treatment, which begins with proper diagnosis, needs a holistic approach as a single cancer patient may already have one or two other illnesses that will require a multidisciplinary treatment plan.

To this end, he said, the Ministry of Health issued a circular approving the setting up of Multidisciplinary Tumour Boards (MDTs) as prerequisite for a hospital to qualify as a Cancer Treatment Centre.

The circular, which was made available to NAN, was dated November 29, 2021, with Ref: NCCP/DHS/030/1, addressed to all Chief Executive Officers of Federal Tertiary Health Institutions, and titled: “Setting Up of MDTs in Cancer Treatment Centres”.

Signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mahmuda Mamman, it directed the CEOs of the referred institutions to set up MDTs in their various institutions and inform all the healthcare workers of the content of the circular for immediate compliance.

Part of the circular reads: “MDTs board is a team of caregivers coming together to review cancer patients with the sole aim of improving the quality of care for the patient.

“The review by MDTs must be evidence-based, using approved guidelines for reference purposes.

“The MDT is expected to have a standard operation manual and a meeting format to review all cancer patients before a final decision on the best modality of treatment is taken.

“It could be a hospital-wide tumour board or a disease specific tumour board.”

Once you misdiagnose, it’s like every other thing is a waste, resources, expertise, everything, nothing will work out.

Cancer week

Okpikpi also spoke about the International Cancer Week (ICW) 2022 coming up in Abuja from Nov 1 to 4, themed: “Bridging the Cancer Care Gap: Improving Diagnosis and Multidisciplinary Management,” aimed at addressing wrong and late diagnosis of cancer.

“We have heard about cases of wrong diagnosis but if you get diagnosis right, of course you are on the right path. Once you misdiagnose, it’s like every other thing is a waste, resources, expertise, everything, nothing will work out.

“So, here we are talking about improving diagnosis and this is one of the areas that we found out that there are lots of gaps because many of our hospitals are not really as equipped as they should be for us to have the right diagnosis.

“That is also why we are emphasising it in this ICW and talking about multidisciplinary management.”

He also said that it would buttress the intent of the circular to give cancer patients a better treatment approach.

About other interventions, the coordinator said that the Federal Government has six designated centres of excellence for oncology.

He said that at these centres, one in each geo-political zone, all kinds of cancers could be managed there as they had been equipped with modern equipment.

He added that “beyond that, the government has also come up with what we call the Cancer Access Partnership Programme. It is a chemotherapy assessment programme which started in 2019.

“This programme ensures that cancer medicines are made available to all patients at 50% less the current price in the market so that medicines are made cheaper for them.”

He also said the Cancer Health Fund, also an initiative of the Federal Government, makes money available for indigent patients who cannot afford the cost of treatment, and is limited to patients with breast, cervix or prostate cancer. (NAN)

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