Cancer: Nigeria needs more radiotherapists

Radiographers have been advised to go for further training and specialise in the field of radiotherapy, a kind of treatment for cancer using high energy radiation. 

Speaking during the third run of the Computed Tomography (CT Scan) training programme for radiographers organized by the Radiographers Registration Board of Nigeria (RRBN) in Abuja, the Chief Radiographer, National Hospital, Abuja, Tijani Abdulkadir, said there were very few radiotherapists in Nigeria, and that the country was in dire need of more.

Abdulkadir said government   and non-governmental organizations keep talking about tackling cancer, adding that without adequate radiotherapists, there can be no effective treatment and management of cancer in the country.

Registrar of the board , Mr. Michael S. Okpaleke  said the essence of the training was to ensure that  radiographers nationwide were well equipped on the CT Scan modality.

Represented by the Chief Radiographer of the board, Michael Bamidele, he said that CT scan is for diagnosis and not treatment adding that the training would help the participants  to produce quality images.

“It will also help the participants to measure appropriately the amount of ionization radiation they will use to produce images , the amount of ionization that will be dispersed to the body of the patient , as well as give them a sense of knowledge on how to attend to patients and conduct themselves  in the public,  among others,” he said.

 While stating that 118 participants drawn from various hospitals across the country were trained for the third run, he said other modalities in radiography were magnetic resonance imaging  (MRI) , ultra sound, and  mammography, to mention a few.

A participant, Abdulrahman Adam from the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital who emerged the best in the programme said it afforded him the opportunity to gain practical knowledge in addition to the theoretical one he acquired from school.

He said the training would help him improve his practice when he returned to the hospital saying that he learnt several case studies like how to scan patients with stroke, brain abscess, tumours, all the protocols , and how to manipulate and get the best out of equipment.