World Cancer Day (February 4 every year) is set aside by the United Nations/World Health Organisation (WHO) to raise awareness about cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. World Cancer Day is an opportunity for nations to collectively examine cancer control strategies and to identify winning formulas that will accelerate progress.
Sadly, WHO latest data shows that worldwide, there were about 14 million new cases and 8.2 million deaths from cancer in 2014, of which half died prematurely (aged 30-69 years). About 70 per cent of these deaths occurred in developing nations like Nigeria. To put this into perspective, 1.1 million people died of Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS killed 1.2 million people and malaria killed less than 500,000 people globally, during the same period. This means that cancer kills about thrice the number of people who die of tuberculosis, HIV and malaria combined, according to the world body. Nigeria has had a significant increase in the incidence of deaths from the common cancers within four years. In 2008 breast cancer killed 30 Nigerian women daily; by 2012 this had risen to 40 women daily. In 2008 prostate cancer killed 14 Nigerian men daily; by 2012 this had risen to 26 men daily. In 2008 liver cancer killed 24 Nigerians daily; by 2012 this had risen to 32 daily.
 

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