Cancer, commonest cause of deaths in UCH, says CMD

As the cancer scourge continues to spread in Nigeria, the Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital (UCH) Prof Temitope Alonge, yesterday raised the alarm that it has been the commonest cause of deaths in the institution since 2013.

Alonge disclosed this at the commissioning of a special diagnostic centre donated to the institution by a philanthropist, Nurudeen Oluwanisola.

The CMD said between 2012-2013, the pattern of deaths was infection-related, trauma and emergencies, but assumed a new twist in the last three years.

He said: “In evaluating the causes of deaths that began in 2012, we needed to know where to focus attention on, many things can cause death, but on the ones that cause most deaths, we needed to be able to focus and address those issues, so it can reduce the death burden from that particular disease.”

According to him, cancer turned out in 2012, as the commonest cause, then HIV positive patients with AIDS, followed closely by trauma and emergencies.

Alonge explained that over the years, “we discovered that cancer-related causes was almost constant and by 2015, in a spate of three years, the commonest cause of death was cancer-related.”

“Therefore, when we saw the trend in 2012-13, we decided to visit the oldest cancer institute in the world which is in the Roswell Park Houston, New York to find out how they managed to sustain their excellence and how they were able to offer cancer care in their 100 years.