Cancer Risk Comparative Analysis: Ibadan Largely Cancer Free, Women Worse Off In Nigeria Than US
The Oasis Reporters
August 22, 2018
A research team has identified the genes responsible for inherited breast cancer in Nigerian women.
Breast cancer forms in the cells of the breasts, mainly affecting women and on rare occasions, men.
“This is the first study to use high-throughput genomic analysis of African women,” said study author Olufunmilayo Olopade, director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics and associate dean for Global Health at the University of Chicago.
“Based on state-of-the-art genomic technologies, two things were clear,” added co-author Mary-Claire King, American Cancer Society Professor of Medicine and Genome Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.
“Risks to Nigerian women who carry mutations in breast cancer genes are higher than risks to women in the US with mutations in the same genes.
“And inherited breast cancer plays a bigger role in the total occurrence of breast cancer in Nigeria compared to the US.”
According to a report by News-Medical, the study enrolled 1,136 women with invasive breast cancer and 997 controls; women of similar ages and heritage who did not have breast cancer.
The disease was far more advanced at diagnosis than in the US, with 86 percent of the patients who were fully evaluated diagnosed at either stage 3 or stage 4.
Almost half (46 percent) of the patients were diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer (tumors that lack estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptors).
This is an aggressive breast cancer subtype, likely to have with a poor prognosis, even in wealthy countries.
Following up on the study, the Chicago-Ibadan team has already developed a risk-prediction model for breast cancer in Nigerian and other Sub-Saharan African women, who are, on average, more than 10 years younger when diagnosed than American women.
This predictive model can identify individuals at high risk of breast cancer, tailor surveillance and suggest risk-reduction strategies.
The study was published in the Journal for Clinical Oncology.
Yet there is an unpublished report from Ibadan. A Pharmaceutical retail outlet in Ibadan, Vanguard Pharmacy in it’s periodic Free Medical Checks at it’s Iwo Road headquarters outlet discovered that the south western nominal headquarter city, records far fewer cancer patients than Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, about 145 kilometers away.
A practicing pharmacist in Vanguard Pharmacy disclosed this under the condition of anonymity that “it may likely be, because Ibadan citizens eat largely farm fresh products unlike in Lagos where Fast foods remain the norm, due to the restless hustle and bustle in the city”.
“People hardly have time to spare for laborious natural cooking as practiced by Nigerian families of old. But such still occur in Ibadan city.
“Yes, we see fewer cancer patients here, and sell fewer cancer drugs in Ibadan.
The Chief Executive Officer of Vanguard Pharmacy, Pharmacist Taofeek Odukoya organises the periodic free medical checks and treatment for people as his own way of giving something back to the society. He would then assemble medical experts in all fields and pharmaceutical companies for the free tests, diagnosis and treatment a few times in a year. The themes and focus differ from time to time and they are usually well attended with people coming from various villages to join those in Ibadan for the free medical exercise.
Source: The Cable
The Oasis Reporters
