AN oncologist Prof Remi Ajekigbe has advised cancer patients to take their chemotherapy and radiation treatments serious.
Reacting to videos and other postings on social media, which he described as misleading, especially alternative medicine, Ajekigbe said they should not be adopted by any patient.
Ajekigbe, a Professor of Radiotherapy and Oncology at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos, said cancer is a disease where abnormal cells divide uncontrollably and destroy body tissues.
The common ones are: Breast cancer (a cancer that forms in the cells of the breasts); Prostate cancer (a cancer in a man’s prostate, a small walnut-sized gland that produces seminal fluid); Basal cell cancer (a type of skin cancer that begins in the basal cells); Melanoma cancer (the most serious type of skin cancer); Colon cancer (cancer of the colon or rectum located in the digestive tract’s lower end); Lung cancer (a cancer that begins in the lungs and most often occurs in people who smoke); Leukemia (a cancer of blood-forming tissues, hindering the body’s ability to fight infection) and Lymphoma cancer (cancer of the lymphatic system).
Chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs as part of a standardised chemotherapy regimen. It may be given with curative intent, or it may aim to prolong life or reduce symptoms. Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is using ionizing radiation generally as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator.
Ajekigbe said cancer needs both treatments (chemotherapy and radiation) for a positive result. He added that radiotherapy reduces cancer pain in bones – whether the bone is the primary or secondary site.
Ajekigbe said: “I will use breast cancer, which is the commonest cancer as an example. By the time a patient notices a one centimetre lump in the breast, she is happy that she has presented early. Yes, she has. But a centimetre lump contains one billion cancer cells. Before the lump is palpable, the sub-clinical stage has been on for between eight months and 10 years, depending on how indolent or aggressive the cancer is.
“In an early cancer with a billion cancer cells because some body fluids like the blood flow through it in at least 20 per cent of the patients, the cancer would have spread microscopically. How many of our patients present this early? And presenting later, the worse, the prognosis.”
Ajekigbe explained that cancer, spread microscopic or macroscopic, is an indication for chemotherapy, which is a systemic form of treatment.
“Chemotherapy involves the use of anti-cancer drugs in different combinations, depending on the type of cancer with the addition of some other drugs to minimise the side effects of the chemotherapy, and we never administered the next chemotherapy until the patient has fully recovered from an earlier one as evidenced by adequate blood count.
“Radiotherapy involves the use of ionising radiation. You don’t see it, nor smell it, you don’t feel it. It kills cancer cells. It reduces cancer, especially in bones. It arrests bleeding as we have it in cancer of the cervix or endometrium uterus, and it reduces tumour mass and thus alleviates the symptoms of cancer.
‘’Monthly, every woman should endeavour to do self-breast examination (SBE) while men aged 40 and above should do prostate screening.
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