LAUTECH students seek grants for cancer drug research

Students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, have called on the government to provide substantial grants to local researchers and pharmaceutical companies to enable them to produce cheaper drugs for cancer treatment.

The students led by a 400-level Medical Laboratory Science student, Mr. Oluwatosin Ogunwola, made the appeal when they visited The PUNCH office in Osogbo, Osun State on Monday.

According to Ogunwola, the visit is to sensitise Nigerians on the need to go for regular cancer screening.

Many Nigerians, Ogunwola said, were living with cancer without knowing about it.

Ogunwola said, “The government should provide grants to researchers and pharmaceutical companies to produce cancer drugs which will be cheaper and affordable to even the poor people.

“Many Nigerians have died of cancer because they discovered the disease late, why many do not bother to go to hospitals because they believe it is an incurable disease. But early detection and prompt treatment has a way of cushioning the psychological trauma.”

He urged Nigerians, especially those whose family members had suffered from cancer, to go for regular screening in order to detect early if they had the disease.

Ogunwola said the theme of 2015 Cancer Day, ‘Not Beyond Us’, was apt, noting that although cancer elimination seems insurmountable, early detection, and prompt treatment were good measures of reducing deaths caused by it