• Children account for 7.2% of 127,000 cases
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The fear of cancer is the beginning of wisdom. This is because of its devastating health risk, financial implications, psychological torture and societal stigmatisation of patients.
The symptoms are unusual persistent pain, including headaches, long-lasting fevers, including low grade fevers with or without vomiting, change of eye colour/ whiteness in the eyes, swelling in parts of the body that will go down, persistent constipation and/or bellyache and persistent tiredness and fatigue.
According to the Federal Government, Nigeria accounts for 127,000 annual cancer cases, with children contributing 7.2 per cent to the disease. Patients die daily as a result of ignorance, lack of proper awareness and sophisticated healthcare system.
This was the submission of the national coordinator, National Cancer Control Programme, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Uchechukwu Emmanuel Nwokwu, at a public awareness exercise to mark the 2025 International Childhood Cancer Day (ICCD).
The event, which was organised by the Akanimo Cancer Foundation, assembled health experts, volunteers, parents, family and friends of the foundation, in Abuja. Also, the exercise was simultaneously organized in different parts of the country, including Lagos, Oyo, Rivers and Kano states.
Amid the jamboree and distribution of fliers, many onlookers admitted that childhood cancer was strange to them, as it was the first time they were hearing about the disease.
But Nwokwu pointed out that childhood cancer survival rates could reach 80% with early diagnosis, adequate treatment, and financial support. He explained that children have higher survival rates than adults due to their strong physiological responses.
Furthermore, he said the government intends to include childhood cancer in Nigeria’s Cancer Health Fund, which he said would provide financial support for the treatment of cancer. He stated that the government was still collating data of patients, especially those in rural areas, to ascertain the exact number.
He said: “Data is still being collated. However, the current figures indicate that Nigeria records 127,000 cancer cases annually, with children accounting for 7.2%.
“The most common cancers among children are leukemias. While adults can also have leukemias, they rank as the fourth most common cancer in adults.
“Incidentally, it is actually the most preventable cancer and the most curable. So, a number of times, if children with cancer are diagnosed early, they have 80% chance of surviving, unlike adult cancers.
“Unfortunately, the awareness is low. And even the government before now has not been paying particular attention to childhood cancers.
“But with this initiative, they need to create awareness for people not to see childhood cancers as bungee, or as arrows, or as witchcraft and all of that.
“Children die of cancers and nobody knows what they die of. So, they will be taking them from one chemist shop to another thinking it is malaria. Meanwhile, if they were to be diagnosed properly, they will know that it is cancer and they can be treated and they will survive.
“So, this is a very important initiative and government has keyed into it fully. Annually, it is going to be marked by government to create awareness and then to ensure that people know what to do and how to get their treatment when they are diagnosed.
“So, like I said, before now, there was this omission of attention towards childhood cancers, but that has changed.
“I am sure that in 2025 childhood cancers will be captured in the Cancer Health Fund. So, going forward, children can now access their care from that fund.”
Speaking on the difference between childhood cancer and adult cancer, he said: “Cancer is essentially the same. We describe cancer as not just a disease, but a group of diseases.
“It is called childhood cancer because they affect children. There are certain types of cancers that are common among children.
“There are cancers that arise as a result of some genetic deformities. That is why what we call the round-celled blue tumors, they are more associated with children. Then, if you look at other cancers that are common among children, it is leukemias.
“Coincidentally, children have more tendency to survive than adults because they have capacity. Their systems are still very functional.
“They have the capacity to resist some of the side effects of the drugs that are used to treat them, and they recover quite fast.
“If we have the opportunity of doing what we call stem cell transplant in them, they can survive it. They are called childhood cancers because they ought to survive better, yet they are not given attention.
“They are categorized as such, so that they are able to attract the attention they need.”
On her part, executive director of Akanimo Cancer Foundation, Idara Ekanem, a lawyer, said she birthed the foundation after she lost her son, Akanimo, and solicited financial support for cancer treatment, lamenting that the treatment of cancer is expensive and beyond the reach of most patients.
She said: “Before Akanimo died, I, along with a couple of friends, were working on an initiative. We actually used to go around schools in Ibadan to talk to teenagers about teenage pregnancy and that kind of thing.
“It was not about health or cancer initiatives at all. In fact, I would say that I only knew one family who had a child that had leukemia. And that was maybe 10 years prior, that child had died.
“Both parents were doctors, but that child passed away from leukemia, I think in seven months. So, I did have a slight idea that childhood cancer was a thing. I just did not know it was such a big thing and very perversive as it is now.”
She pointed out that due to her undying passion to assist cancer patients, she is currently taking care of patients in Nigerian hospitals.
“We have about 10 children in five Nigerian hospitals. We are taking care of them under the patient treatment programme of Akanimo Childhood Cancer Foundation.”
While reeling out the cost implication, she said: “It is massive,” adding that “it is just that we have this thing where we say that we cannot abandon a child.
“It is impossible to put naira and kobo together. I’m talking millions. I mean one child can cost you anything between N10 and N15 million, depending.
“So, no matter how hard it is, we would rather walk the streets, ask people for personal donations to be able to take care of these kids.
“The truth is that cancer treatment is very expensive. And most of these children that we take on are absolutely indigent Nigerian children. Sometimes they cannot afford treatment.
“Sometimes, they cannot afford food, sometimes they cannot afford medication that is going to even confirm the cancer.
“So we pay for everything, depending on what the child needs, from chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy and other medications that a child needs to just be able to make it through.
“We are just trying to make it possible for every child to survive. That means early detection and being able to confirm diagnosis.
“What we need is that healthcare workers, doctors and nurses should have a higher suspicion of cancer in children than they have right now.
“We are already there. As this event is going on right now, it is going on in Lagos, it is going on in Ibadan, it is going on in Port Harcourt, it is going on in Uyo and it is going on in Kano.
“Our hope is that, by next year’s International Childhood Cancer Day, we will be able to do this event in at least 15 states simultaneously.”
As part of its humanitarian gesture, a representative of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Aisha Ndanusa, said the organization would provide psycho-socio support for parents, especially mothers who bear the burden of taking care of their children.
Ndanusa observed that so many parents pull out of treatment for their children because of the cost implications.
She said: “So many families dropped out of treatment for their children not necessarily that they do not want treatment for their children but because it is very expensive to manage their children’s cancer.
“Even travelling from faraway villages to the city is time-consuming and the money they are going to spend and accommodation.
“Cancer treatment is not something you can do in one day. Sometimes when you go for your medical appointment, the doctors can say they cannot see the child today but in three days.
“You have to understand that women are care-providers for these children and they have other things to do at home. We are trying to see how we can support these care-providers not just financially but psycho-social support for them.
“This is because even though the child is the one that has cancer, mothers are going through psychological torture trying to cope with their children that have cancer.”