Cancer: Uptake Of Guidelines Will Harmonise Treatment – Experts

 In a bid to ensure effective cancer management, the National Hospital Abuja, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and American Cancer Society, has launched an uptake of the harmonised guideline for the management of cancer.

The head, Radiotherapy and Oncology Department, National Hospital Abuja, Dr Uchechukwu Shagaya, who spoke at a one-day conference on the “Uptake of the NCCN Harmonised Guidelines for Sub-Saharan Africa”, on Tuesday in Abuja, said the summit was organised to commemorate the World Cancer Day, themed: “Closing the Care Gap”.

He said over the years, most people do awareness and the oncologists, surgeons and doctors who manage these cases should do the preaching of the care gap within the caregivers.

“So, we decided to launch an uptake on the harmonised guideline, we want to ensure that the management of cancer is harmonised and we are using standardised guidelines.

“The guideline talks about prevention of cancer all the way to palliation. It talks about the work up, the tests that should be done, how it should be diagnosed, and how it should be treated.
“What to expect on the side effects of the treatment and then the outcome of the treatment as well as the follow up of the treatment,” he said.

The director, Clinical Services, National Hospital Abuja, Dr Badejo Olawale, said the summit focused on breast cancer as the pilot, adding that with the uptake of the guideline, a lot of confusion and disharmony in the treatment of cancer will be dispelled.

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“What we have is a situation where people do things from their own perspective and at the end of the day, there’s lots of confusion.

“The guideline helps you irrespective of the amount of resources you have to practice within a set goal such that if all you have in your centre are surgeons and no radiologist, your surgical practice will fall in line.

“Even if the patient has reasons to go to a place where there are facilities, you would not have done harm to that patient, they will just take it off from there.

“So, it’s beneficial to the practitioner in terms of guides, beneficial to the patient in terms of safety and getting the best possible care in the care spectrum across the different disease types,” the director of clinical services said.

The convener, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH) Multi-Disciplinary Tumor Board, Prof. King-David Yawe, said with the training, care givers have been empowered with knowledge to know where help can be obtained.