Fresh hope for Nigerian cancer patients

With over 250,000 Nigerians affected by cancer every
year, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, NIMR,
has said that its new Cancer Research and Training
Centre will provide training and quality researches into
the rising cases of cancer in the country.
Speaking during the official commissioning of the new
biomedical training and cancer research centre in Lagos,
the Director General of NIMR, Prof Innocent Ujah
disclosed that the capacity of the diagnostic machines at
the centre, built and equipped by Sysmex-Patec of
Germany, is capable of investigating various kinds of
haematological disorders.
Haematological disorders
Ujah said the project which was formalised in a 2013
Memorandum of Understanding was solely a private
partnership initiative “devoid of government funding”.
Describing the facility as a demonstration of genuine
partnership, he said: “the partnership with Sysmec-
Partec is one of the several collaborations NIMR has had
with leading international institutions and organisations
to support human and infrastructural development in the
Nigeria’s foremost research centre.
Pioneer Chairman National Action Committee on AIDS,
now National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA,
Prof. Ibironke Akinsete, was optimistic that initiative
would help fight the deadly disease and save lives of
millions of Nigerians.
Akinsete who also decried lack of training facilities and
quality research for cancer cases said available training
facilities have been overwhelmed as the burden grew
over the years.
“You must remember that cancer is a deadly disease and
we don’t have the facilities. In developed countries, they
have facilities for research to know the epidemiology,
causes, treatment and prevention of cancer. We are still
very much in its infancy here.”
“If you look at the whole of Nigeria, many lives could
have been saved if we had done research into
prevention, diagnosis, treatment and so on. This is what
this centre has to offer and we hope that this will be the
beginning, not only in Lagos, but the whole of Nigeria, so
that we will be able to look into cancer patients as much
as possible.”
Akinsete explained that cancer research is a basic
research into the disease, to identify causes and develop
strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure.
She added that there are many simple, yet defining,
researches to be done, appealing to researchers from
different institutions to come into the new facility to carry
out their studies, using its state-of-the-art equipment.
The multi-million naira facility, being a Public Private
Partnership, PPP, arrangement between NIMR and the
German technology company, Sysmec-Partec, currently
has a cancer research laboratory and office; a
biomedical laboratory that houses XN-Series
Haematology analysers; and conference rooms, among others.