The Apollo Proton Cancer Center in India has launched an awareness campaign in Nigeria to give hope to Nigerians living with cancer.
Health experts from Nigeria and India who have an educative session on the advanced cancer treatment option in Nigeria sais, Proton therapy is a radiation therapy that uses tiny particles called protons. It can be effective in treating many types of tumours, including tumours of the brain, head and neck, central nervous system, lung, prostate and gastrointestinal system.
Speaking during the launch, the Deputy General Manager, International Marketing, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre India, Mr. Amit Chaturvedi said, world cancer registry every year shows that Nigeria has 115,950 new cases, and many more got undiagnosed and unregistered, so every year Nigeria is having 115,000 new cancer cases.
“Five years prevalence is 211,000 cases. out of 115,000 cases 71,000 cancer cases is of female and 44,000 is made out of 71,000 female 26,000 plus cases is only of breast cancer.
“So, the cancer burden of Nigeria is huge and we are here to with a solution which can deal with this problem if not completely but up to a great extent. We have been treating Nigerians for many years now. We have a big extended family of Apollo patients here in Nigeria,” he said.
Mr. Amit said every month, Apollo is receiving 100 plus patients in India but the India Cancer Centre intention is not only to take patients from Nigeria to India for treatment but believe in capacity building in the field of healthcare of the country of origin where patient belongs to but have done some tie-ups with some Nigerian public and private sector.
“We are in talks with national hospitals to run clinical programs in collaboration, we are focusing on telemedicine from Nigeria as well.
“We are in discussions with many of the public healthcare providers for Comprehensive Cancer Center in Nigeria. So, those talks are also going on,” he added.
Regarding Proton cost, Mr. Amit said the proton cost is $65,000. That is a package cost from evaluation to treatment to everything.
“So, the cost of protons is expensive actually, and we are the only center who has this technique in the whole of Southeast Asia and Middle East. But it’s not the only option with the Apollo group. We have all kinds of radiation machines available from CyberKnife to normal linear accelerators to TomoTherapy,” he said.
Senior Consultant Radiation Oncologist, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre in India Dr. Sapna Nangia who spoke on the Proton Beam Therapy at the conference highlighted how complicated cases were treated with the utmost precision, and with successful personal experiences.
Commenting on the therapy and its uses, Senior Consultant, Radiation Oncology program for Head, Neck, Breast, and Gynaecological Cancers at the Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, Dr. Sapna Nangia, Chennai, said Proton Therapy has emerged as an excellent treatment modality for a number of cancers.
“One of the most common sites being treated at the Apollo Proton Cancer Centre is cancers of the head and neck. Patients undergoing Proton Therapy have significantly less discomfort during and after treatment and are less likely to require hospital admission, tube feeding, or treatment interruption. In patients with tumours involving the skull base, Protons improve the safety of critical organs like the visual pathway and the brain stem. At Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, we have the latest PBS technology which enables us to deliver highly focused treatments to each tumour, and each tumour is treated with protons, spot- by- spot and layer-by-layer. It has been proven to be successful in curing or controlling many cancers when used appropriately,” She said.
Stating his mother’s journey, Mohammed Kabir, son of Ms Safiya who was treated at Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, Chennai, said in October 2019 his mother was diagnosed with colon cancer in Dubai and she underwent surgery in the country, after taking a few sessions of chemotherapy, she returned to Nigeria.
“For a follow-up, we wanted to take her to Turkey, but all our research showed that Apollo Proton Cancer Centre was a better option considering the expertise, knowledge, and advanced technology that it’s equipped with. We could not have made a better decision as we got the best service, treatment and care at APCC,” he said.
Apollo Proton Cancer Centre is said to have a fully integrated treatment suite that offers the most advanced treatment in surgical, radiation and medical procedures. Apollo brings together a powerful team of clinicians renowned globally in cancer care. With a strong approach in treating cancer, APCC has an experienced multi-disciplinary team of highly skilled clinicians focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for patients with utmost care.
