Cancer can be detected early..

For the second time in the year, Nigeria has lost two eminent personalities to cancer.

The former Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria and Senior Media Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, died in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, where she was undergoing treatment for cancer.

One cannot forget in a hurry the death of another fearless woman, the former Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Dora Akunyili, in June at an Indian hospital over an alleged cancer-related sickness.

The list of important personalities whom cancer has killed in the last two years in the country goes on and on. Cancer respects neither race nor status. In fact, it kills both the young and old.

For many who do not know, consultant oncologist and the Head of Oncology Unit, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Prof. Remi Ajekigbe, says cancer occurs when abnormal cells divide without control and are able to invade other tissues.

Ajekigbe says cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems, saying, “Cancer is not just one disease but many diseases.”

The World Health Organisation, in April this year, raised the alarm that the number of people being diagnosed with cancer globally annually has climbed to more than 14 million.

It notes that the number of cancer-related deaths has also increased from 7.6 million in 2008 to 8.2 million in 2013. According to the global body, the world is facing a cancer crisis and all hands – including those of the government and the public – must be on deck to check this ugly trend.