The National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT) has commenced phase two of its programme to integrate basic cancer screening services into Primary Health Care facilities across Kwara.
The Director-General of NICRAT, Prof. Usman Aliyu, said this on Tuesday in Ilorin during a two-day capacity-building programme for healthcare workers on free HPV DNA cervical cancer screening.
Aliyu, represented by NICRAT’s Senior Scientific and Partnership Liaison Officer, Mrs Deloraine Dennis, said the programme aimed to integrate basic preventive services for screenable cancers into existing healthcare delivery platforms.
He explained that breast, cervical, skin and liver cancers would be integrated into family planning services, with the second phase specifically focusing on cervical cancer screening.
“We aim to create awareness amongst clients at the family planning clinic and ensure that these clients can then proceed to get screened for cervical cancer,” he said.
Speaking on the expected beneficiaries, Aliyu said the institute projected screening 200 clients per state during the pilot phase currently being implemented across six participating states, including Kwara.
He explained that the programme would gradually expand, with the institute hoping to establish routine cancer screening for every client attending family planning clinics across participating healthcare facilities.
Aliyu added that NICRAT assessed three primary healthcare centres in Kwara before selecting Okelele Primary Healthcare Centre for the pilot implementation of the programme in the state.
“We intend to expand this pilot to the other PHCs that we have already assessed and actually expand it across Kwara,” she said.
He said although the programme was initially being implemented in six states, NICRAT ultimately intended to extend the intervention nationwide, consistent with the institute’s broader cancer prevention programmes.
On Nigeria’s cancer burden, the Director-General described the disease as highly prevalent, citing the 2024 Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) estimates highlighting the country’s growing number of annual cases.
“Based on the current statistics that was released by Globocan, the 2024 estimates that were just released, new cases that we have annually now is more than 150,000.
“More than 50 per cent of these new cases face mortality. So it is indeed very alarming,” he said.
Also speaking, Kwara State Ministry of Health’s State Family Planning Coordinator, Hajia Bashirat Jatto, commended NICRAT for partnering with the state to integrate cervical cancer screening into family planning services.
Jatto said the collaboration represented the first initiative of its kind in Kwara, introducing cervical cancer screening into existing family planning services across participating healthcare facilities in the state.
On government efforts towards cancer control, she said the state had conducted annual cervical cancer screening activities across health facilities, targeting women of reproductive age.
She added that the latest integration initiative would further expand access to screening services and improve early detection among women attending family planning clinics across Kwara.
A NICRAT consultant, Dr Mustapha Yahaya, described family planning services as an existing platform that could facilitate the integration of essential cancer screening services into routine healthcare delivery.
Yahaya explained that although the broader programme covers all screenable cancers, the second phase of implementation specifically focused on cervical cancer screening.
He said screening would involve provider sample collection, with trained family planning healthcare providers responsible for collecting samples from women attending the clinics for services.
The consultant explained that women who test negative would receive counselling to repeat screening after 10 years, while positive cases would receive treatment linkage and full NICRAT support.
He added that the institute would continue supporting affected women throughout treatment until they were free of the virus, ensuring appropriate follow-up and access to necessary care.
Similarly, NICRAT Kwara Team gynaecologist, Dr Jibril Abdullahi, said cervical cancer remained preventable in spite of its high mortality rate among women globally and particularly in Nigeria.
Abdullahi said cervical cancer continued to ravage women worldwide, with more than 600,000 cases recorded annually and over 300,000 deaths attributed to the disease globally.
“In Nigeria, we have over 10,000 cases annually and more than 7,000 deaths annually from cervical cancer,” he said.
He emphasised that the high mortality associated with a preventable disease underscored the urgent need for increased awareness, vaccination, regular screening and timely treatment across communities nationwide.
Abdullahi explained that more than 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases had been linked to Human Papillomavirus (HPV), identified as the disease’s primary causative agent.
He said that cervical cancer developed gradually, usually taking approximately 10 to 15 years after HPV infection to progress into cancer, providing opportunities for early detection and prevention.
According to him, while individuals with strong immunity may clear the virus within one to two years, persistent infections in others can progress into precancerous conditions.
Abdullahi said the intervention aligned with Nigeria’s National Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy, which sought to achieve the global 90-70-90 targets by 2030 through coordinated interventions nationwide.
“By the year 2030, we want to have vaccinated 90 per cent of girls less than 15 years in the country.
“We want to have screened 70 per cent of women 35 years or more, and we want to treat 90 per cent of women that have pre-cervical cancer,” he said.
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