The perception of cancer screening an added cost and inconvenience is one of the major reasons why past efforts to raise awareness for cancer and treatment options have not been completely successful in improving cancer health behaviour amongst women in Nigeria. This was the submission of Nigerian First Ladies against Cancer (FLAC).
At a press briefing held on Tuesday, FLAC members and Roche Nigeria noted that f it is institutionalized as one of the requisite tests, then cancer screening will become a compulsory exercise for women.
“Some other factors affecting women’s resistance to cancer screening include low perception of cancer risk, and physician gender preferences. In addition, lack of spouse permission and support; belief that cancer is a death wish and societal discrimination are amongst the common socio-cultural barriers to screening. It is therefore imperative that stakeholders upscale efforts to advocate for and create awareness of cancer screening available to Nigerian women,” they stated.
To break down the barriers, they called for ensuring primary prevention through lifestyle modification and secondary prevention through cancer screening. For both Breast and Cervical cancers, they noted that screening tests are simple and relatively inexpensive and can easily be provided at primary health centres.
The gold standard test for cervical cancer screening is testing for the Human papilloma Virus (HPV) which the partners said is currently inaccessible for majority of women in Nigeria. And so there is need for the government to allocate funds specifically in order to make it available to women. They said the screening program has to be comprehensive with provision made to assist the women navigate the healthcare system following any positive results from the screening exercise including the facilitation of referrals for further assessment and treatment.
“Having a National screening programme for cervical cancer will key into the recently launched WHO cervical cancer elimination strategy, which involves screening and treatment of cervical cancer as well as the prevention with HPV vaccination. The HPV vaccines are only available to those who can afford it, which brings the need to incorporate the vaccine into the National vaccination program, FLAC is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Health, vaccine manufacturers and other partners to make the vaccines more accessible to young girls and women across the country,” the partners stated.
The FLAC-Roche partnership aims to serve this purpose and extends back to 2016. Roche has specifically paved the way to provide breast cancer treatment to women in some States across Nigeria as we work together in the joint creation of awareness amongst women about the importance of vaccination, screening and treatment.
They called on government and other stakeholders alike to join the partnership in meeting the objective of 90% of girls to be vaccinated against HPV by 2030, 70% of women screened for HPV by the age of 35 and then again at 45 years of age and lastly that 90% of women diagnosed with cervical cancer are able to access treatment.