Project Pink Blue (PPB) has conducted training for 34 Nigerian oncology pharmacists in a move  to help reduce cases of cancer in Nigeria.

The nonprofit, during the opening ceremony of the training in Lagos State, attributed Nigeria’s high cases of cancer to depreciating state of health facilities in the country.

According to 2020 data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Nigeria contributed to the world’s cancer burden with 124,815 new cases and 78,899 deaths.

Speaking at the training, the Executive Director of the nonprofit, Runcie Chidebe, explained that the aim of the training was to build the capacity of pharmacists in the management, care, and cancer treatment.

‘Upgrade Oncology is a capacity development programme that is focused on improving cancer treatment and care through the provision of medical oncology training and the domestication of the treatment guidelines for better cancer care in Nigeria’, Chidebe said.

‘There is a need to provide training for these people who are providing this chemotherapy to patients and who are also giving these medications. We brought pharmacists from all over the six regions of the country’.

Also speaking at the training, an industry expert, Prof. Donald Harvey, from the Department of Haematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta Georgia, U.S., emphasised the importance of teamwork in responding to cancer.

‘We cannot have any success unless we are a team, and that team has to be integrated. It has to be under the direction of a physician taking care of the patient’, he said.

‘We are here to add to education on how drugs are used safely by nurses, physicians and patients’.

Photo source: Project Pink Blue