With over 250,000 Nigerians affected by cancer every year, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, NIMR, has said that its new Cancer Research and Training Centre will provide training and quality researches into the rising cases of cancer in the country.

 

cancer-pix1Speaking during the official commissioning of the new biomedical training and cancer research centre in Lagos, the Director General of NIMR, Prof Innocent Ujah disclosed that the capacity of the diagnostic machines at the centre, built and equipped by Sysmex-Patec of Germany, is capable of investigating various kinds of haematological disorders.

 

Haematological  disorders

 

Ujah said the project which was formalised in a 2013 Memorandum of Understanding was solely a private partnership initiative “devoid of government funding”.

 

Describing the facility as a demonstration of genuine partnership, he said: “the partnership with Sysmec-Partec is one of the several collaborations NIMR has had with leading international institutions and organisations to support human and infrastructural development in the Nigeria’s foremost research centre.

 

 

Pioneer Chairman National Action Committee on AIDS, now National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA, Prof. Ibironke Akinsete, was optimistic that initiative would help fight the deadly disease and save lives of millions of Nigerians.

 

Akinsete who also decried lack of training facilities and quality research for cancer cases said available training facilities have been overwhelmed as the burden grew over the years.

 

“You must remember that cancer is a deadly disease and we don’t have the facilities. In developed countries, they have facilities for research to know the epidemiology, causes, treatment and prevention of cancer. We are still very much in its infancy here.”

 

“If you look at the whole of Nigeria, many lives could have been saved if we had done research into prevention, diagnosis, treatment and so on. This is what this centre has to offer and we hope that this will be the beginning, not only in Lagos, but the whole of Nigeria, so that we will be able to look into cancer patients as much as possible.”

 

Akinsete explained that cancer research is a basic research into the disease, to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure.

 

She added that there are many simple, yet defining, researches to be done, appealing to researchers from different institutions to come into the new facility to carry out their studies, using its state-of-the-art equipment.

 

The multi-million naira facility, being a Public Private Partnership, PPP, arrangement between NIMR and the German technology company, Sysmec-Partec, currently has a cancer research laboratory and office; a biomedical laboratory that houses XN-Series Haematology analysers; and conference rooms, among others.

 

By Chioma Obinna

Vanguard