Consultant urologist with the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Dr. Ademola Popoola, has said that  more than 20,000 men die of prostate cancer every year in Nigeria.

Delivering a  lecture on Tuesday in Ilorin, Kwara State on "Prostate Cancer: Awareness, prevention and screening," he said the death rate of prostate cancer had shown a steady decline all over the world in recent years, but that in Nigeria and other African countries,  the reverse was the case.

He added that more deaths were recorded in Nigeria because of the increasing rate of the disease. The health seminar was  organised by the University of Ilorin Board of Health, in conjunction with the Faculty of Clinical Sciences.

Popoola, who is also a Senior Lecturer, Department of Surgery, UNILORIN, said more than 80 per cent of men with prostate cancer were over 65 years of age.

He said prostate cancer was not contagious.

According to him,  its symptoms include the need to urinate often, especially at night; intense need to urinate (urgency); difficulty in starting or stopping the urine flow; inability to urinate; weak, decreased or interrupted urine stream; a sense of incompletely emptying the bladder; burning or pain during urination; blood in the urine or semen and painful ejaculation.

Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrics, Prof. Abdulgafar Jimoh, in a presentation on "Cervical cancer: An overview," said that cervical cancer was the commonest genital cancer in women  in Nigeria, noting that in Northern Nigeria, it is the commonest cancer in women, and in the south it is second to breast cancer.

He stated that most women who developed cervical cancer in Nigeria were untreated, mostly due to lack of access to sound health care. 

He said deaths from cervical cancer in Nigeria could only be comparable to pregnancy-related deaths, adding that mortality from cervical cancer in Nigeria is very high.

According to him, because of the disease, many women die undignified and extremely painful deaths which often go unnoticed except by those close to them.

"Cervical cancer is important cause of death in women aged 45-65 years in Nigeria. sixty to 75 per cent of women who develop cervical cancer live in rural areas. In Nigeria, cervical cancer is the leading cause of gynaecological deaths," he said.

Delivering a paper on "Cervical cancer screening and prevention", a consultant gynaecologist, Dr. Rakia Saidu, said that vaccination and screening were the most effective approaches to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer.

She said cervical cancer was very rare in women who get regular pap tests.

According to her,  women who initiate sex early, have multiple sexual partners,  and whose partners have other partners and women who do not have screening tests and  do not follow up with testing or treatment after an abnormal pap test, are at risk of having cervical cancer.