Lack of data impediment to cancer treatment-Odunsi

Speaking at a public lecture to mark the 20th anniversary of SSDental clinic Ltd, Dr. Odunsi who spoke on the topic ‘Cancer Free Body’ said that correct data will drive better care, and hopefully better outcomes for the patients.

She said: “There is no compiled accurate data on cancer patients, nobody really knows in Nigeria how many patients have cancer, where they are being treated”, According to her, “With the right data about our genetics also, we will be able to drive the pharmaceutical industry to begin to make drugs suitable for Africans”.

“The fact is that when we have patients we are treating in Africa, we are using drugs and guidelines and they are all prepared and governed for the Caucasian population and so it is time for us to begin to gather our information like how many patients do we have that have cancer, what type of cancer, how are they responding to treatment”, said Dr. Odunsi who was also the guest speaker.

She urged the public sector, healthcare services and the federal government to stand up to their duty of gathering data.

“Because if you want real data, you are not going to tertiary hospitals or private sector because we are only seeing the kind of patients that can afford that care though we need to collect our own data too”.

She noted that though cancer is a silent killer, it is not a death sentence once it is detected early and urged people especially those above the age of 40years to do annual medical checkups adding that early detector saves lives.