Longer breast-feeding reduces cancer risk – Expert

By Olayinka Latona

Lagos — Women who breast-feed their babies for longer periods face a lower risk of becoming infected with cancer. This was disclosed in Lagos by the National Coordinator of the National Cancer Prevention Programme, NCPP, Dr. Kin Egwuonwu, during a breast cancer awareness walk tagged, Walk for Life.

He further stated that cancer prevention in Nigeria was the responsibility of all, as everybody is a potential sufferer of the deadly disease.

Dr. Egwuonwu said: “This is a time for us all to join hands together to fight the cancer scourge. Other countries of the world have taken pro-active steps to fight the scourge and they have had positive results.”

Egwuonu lamented that Nigeria is not fully ready to tackle the cancer scourge at present as the nation does not have any National Cancer Institute.

He said there is need for the nation to have screening centres all over the country including all local government areas. He revealed that there is high increase in the incidence of breast cancer in Nigeria.

Egwuonwu stated that cervical cancer kills a Nigerian woman every hour and that breast cancer is the commonest cause of cancer related deaths in Africa.