Nigeria needs N19.46b to prevent 70,327 cancer deaths yearly, $300m to end TB by 2030

To prevent losing 70,327 lives to cancer yearly, Nigeria needs over N19.46b for prevention, diagnosis and treatment, hospice and palliative care, advocacy, data management and research, as well as governance and finance.

The National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP) 2018 –2022, disclosed that Nigeria needed to spend N97.3b on cancer treatment and care in five years. A breakdown showed that the country plans to spend N19.46b on cancer treatment and care yearly.

The NCCP 2018 –2022 has provided cost estimates for the five-year period of the NCCP so that stakeholders know the cost required to operationalise the plan.

It also provided the cost estimates for advocacy and resource mobilisation from international donors, private sector, civil society organisations and government in the fight against cancer.

A further breakdown of the figures showed that N60.5b is required for prevention; N59.5m for diagnosis and treatment; N272m for hospice and palliative care; N418.15m for advocacy; N419.78m for data management and research; N35.55b for logistics and N92m for governance and finance.

Also, current mortality estimates from modeling using incidence mortality rates derived from cancer registry data in GLOBOCAN 2018 showed that cancer killed 70,327 and afflicted 115,950 Nigerians in 2018.

The GLOBOCAN 2018 data for Nigeria showed that breast, cervical, prostate, and colorectal tumours constitute 52.7 per cent of all cases.

GLOBOCAN 2018 is an online database providing estimates of incidence and mortality in 185 countries for 36 types of cancer, and for all cancer sites combined.

However, unlike in the United States (US) where the overall lost earnings were $94.4b and $191,900 per cancer death and lost $29m per 100,000 population overall, a new United States (US) analysis published in JAMA Oncologyindicate that Nigeria does to have such figures.

A professor of Radiology, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Enugu State, Ifeoma Okoye, and Medical Director, International Research Centre of Excellence (IRCE), Institute of Human Virology, Abuja, Dr. Elima Jedy-Agba, said the amount of money Nigeria looses to cancer annually was difficult to compute as the country does not have national mortality register and does not know the exact number of cancer deaths.

The country also requires over $300 million to end Tuberculosis (TB) by 2030, according to Chairman, Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Professor Lovett Lawson.

Lawson, who disclosed this at a media briefing on the second annual TB conference with the theme: Building Stronger Partnerships to End TB in Nigeria, said funding from the Nigerian government and international donors for the control of the disease was grossly inadequate.

He revealed that the country needed 76 per cent additional funding for TB control compared to the current funding level if Nigeria is to end TB in 2030.

He noted that TB presently is a major public health challenge as between eight and10 million new cases are diagnosed yearly, translating to 1/3 of world’s population and 95 per cent cases in developing countries.