With Cancer now ranking as the number one killer in the world, the Nigerian Government has been urged to implement the 9 targets of the 2013 World Cancer Declaration as part of the strategies to prevent and reduce the scourge of the disease among Nigerians.

The World Cancer Declaration called upon government leaders and health policy makers to significantly reduce the global cancer burden to promote greater equity and integrate cancer control into world health and development.

Speaking in Lagos on World Cancer Day 2014 with the theme-‘”Debunk the Myths” the President and Founder, Breast Without Spot, BWS, Professor Ifeoma Okoye, also said the implementation of the nine targets would reduce premature deaths from cancer and improve quality of life and cancer survival rates.

Okoye who lamented the burden of cancer disclosed that the recent statistics by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) said cancer now ranks number 1 killer in the world, (7.8 Million deaths) taking over heart disease (7.02 Million deaths).

She posited that the alarming statistics should provoke urgent action for cancer control advocacy on the part of individual, community and at the policy level.

Introducing the nine targets as contained in the revised World Cancer Declaration 2013, Okoye who spoke extensively on each of them, emphasised mostly, the target 3-Reducing exposure to risk factors of cancer.

She disclosed that ensuring evidence-based facts and truths as well as increase in awareness among the Nigerian populace, BWS has instituted an award initiative called “Journalist Cancer Control Advocate of the Year”, an initiative intended to encourage increased cancer control advocacy on the part of Nigerian journalists and media organisations.