Tina Amanda
Chairman Medical Advisory Committee University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), Professor Lucky Onotai, has called on government to support the process of eradicating factors that causes nasopharyngeal cancer in Nigeria.
Professor Onotai, who made the call during the hospital Grand Rounds, presented by Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery Department, said forty-five cases of patients suffering from Nasopharyngeal cancer have been diagnosed in UPTH hospital within the space of five years.
He explained that nasopharyngeal cancer which is a tumor hidden behind the nose, is a multi-organ disease with misleading symptoms such as neck swelling, difficult in swallowing, adding that it is caused by chemicals gotten from smoke fish, the environment, consumption of preserved food amongst others.
He further noted that nasopharyngeal tumor is treatable if diagnosed early, as the disease spreads to the eye, head, lungs, throat and other parts of the body.
“The nasopharynx is hidden behind the nose is not palpable you can not touch or see it and therefore the symptoms produce by the condition of that place you would not be able to palpate it because it comes from various other organs, that is why we say it is a multi organ disease.
“It appears in the nasopharynx, it present in other organs which you can get confused on thinking it’s a nose problem, eye problem or neck problem, all these things confuse the presentation and make it impossible for the health care giver to say this one is nasopharyngeal cancer and send it to the appropriate area of treatment.
“Some of the ecological factor include undue exposure to chemicals and in this our environment we have lots of petroleum chemicals, gas flaring, petroleum products being refined indiscriminately by unauthorized persons, so when one come in contact with such things the person is likely to be predisposed to Nasopharyngeal cancer.
“The eating of ungutted salted fish, it has been established that some chemicals called nitrosamines these are chemicals that are contained in those ungutted fish, when you consume them in large quantities those chemicals are also consumed and it predisposes one into having Nasopharyngeal tumor”.
Also, Consultant Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgery, Dr. Uju Ibekwe, said studies carried out shows that most patient suffering from Nasopharyngeal are male, while advising the public to seek early treatment to avoid severe damage of the body and death.
“The last study that we did actually done by me, review of a five year period which ended last year, we had forty-five cases and most of them were males about forty three years.
“Our challenge is for people to present early, when you present early if you are in a private place and you have this catarrh that refuses to go or you have a bleed from the nose, get a doctor to look at it and that will help, because when a patient present early the challenge is less, when they present early you take them to theater, take out the nasopharynx, begin the treatment and then you will have a good result.
“When you allow the symptoms to stay too long it begins to affect the eyes, lungs, chest and the person may start experiencing cough even the bones on the leg. I had a young man that did the same thing, they treated him for catarrh not knowing he has Nasopharyngeal and by the time we saw him the disease have spread to chest, lungs bones and finally we lost him.”
