Cancer and tumour markers

摘要

Cancer has been a major cause of death world wide and in Nigeria there are six commonest forms of manifestation of cancer known. Of these prostrate cancer is the highest with 16% occurrence of all known cancers according to a study by the Histopathology Department of the UCH. Many factors, amongst them dietary, environmental, lifestyle, age and sedentary work are possible causes. With the global rise in incidents, the IAEA initiated the Tumour Marker Project as a means of screening cancers in 15 African countries including Nigeria. In Nigeria, 4 groups of the commonest cancers have been chosen for screening. These are prostrate cancer, primary liver cancer, cancer of the GI tract and trophoblastic cancer