Nigeria faces a significant challenge with cancer, as it has one of the highest cancer rates in Africa, with a high mortality rate of about 74.6 per 100,000 people annually. This alarming statistic highlights the urgent need for improved cancer prevention, early detection, treatment, and awareness programs across the country.
The LoveWorld Medical Centre (LMC), founded by the President of LoveWorld Incorporated, Reverend (Dr.) Chris Oyakhilome, has indeed taken a bold stand in the fight against cancer. Under the visionary leadership of the Chairman of the LMC, Dr Deola Phillips, the medical centre’s commitment to addressing this pressing health issue aligns with its mission to offer world-class healthcare while integrating compassion, excellence, and faith in the healing process.
In line with it’s mantra to offer advanced, trusted wholesome care, the LoveWorld Medical centre, a multi specialty hospital, has established a state-of-the-art Nuclear Medicine Department. Nuclear medicine is a groundbreaking field in modern healthcare, offering unique diagnostic and therapeutic advantages. By using small amounts of radioactive materials, nuclear medicine can visualize and assess the function of organs, tissues, and cells, providing critical insights into conditions such as cancer, heart disease, infections, and more. This ability to detect diseases at a very early stage allows for earlier intervention, which is often crucial for improving patient outcomes.
A key strength of nuclear medicine is its application in cancer treatment, especially theragnostics: the combination of therapy and diagnostics, where a targeted radioactive treatment can be used to treat cancers based on specific molecular markers. Unlike traditional treatments like chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which affect both healthy and cancerous cells, theragnostic treatments are more precise and focused. This precision helps to minimize damage to healthy tissues, reducing side effects and improving quality of life for patients undergoing cancer treatment.
The Loveworld Medical Centre, Nuclear Medicine Department, performed a groundbreaking Lutetium-177 cancer treatment at the facility.
These advanced procedures are guided by international standards to ensure reproducible results with uniform outcomes, and such procedures can only be undertaken in a highly specialised nuclear medicine centre by specialist nuclear physicians with properly trained support staff. The LoveWorld Medical Centre, Nuclear Medicine team, led by Nuclear Medicine Physician, Dr. Masha Maharaj, successfully combined the Lutetium-177 radionuclide with the desired peptide and treated cancer patients recently. Two patients were treated. Both patients have experienced evident clinical changes and their post therapy scans confirmed the tumor cells were effectively targeted.
This a major medical advancement for healthcare in Nigeria as previously patients would have to travel outside Nigeria to other nations such as Germany, India or South Africa, for these advanced, life-changing cancer treatments.
Making treatments accessible to all and promoting local advanced care is a transformative approach in healthcare.
There is tremendous potential of Lutetium-177 (Lu-177) therapy, especially in the context of prostate cancer and other hard-to-treat cancers. The outcomes reported—such as complete responses, significant palliation, improved pain control, delayed tumor progression, and overall better quality of life—are promising signs that this therapy could be a breakthrough for patients who are resistant to conventional treatments. This kind of precision medicine is part of a broader trend toward more targeted therapies that focus on the underlying molecular characteristics of cancer cells.
The minimal and manageable side effects associated with this therapy set it apart from many systemic cancer treatments, which can be harsh and lead to a wide array of adverse effects. This gentler, more focused approach offers a major advantage, especially for patients who have already gone through multiple lines of treatment without success.
In addition, targeted therapies like this one could reduce overall treatment costs compared to traditional therapies that may involve prolonged hospital stays, intensive chemotherapy regimens, or frequent doctor visits. By offering a more focused treatment with fewer side effects, Lutetium-177 tailored treatments, could help reduce the need for expensive supportive care and hospitalizations, ultimately benefiting both patients and healthcare systems.
The Nuclear Medicine centre serves as a testament to how leadership can influence both the healthcare industry and broader society, reflecting Reverend Chris Oyakhilome’s global vision. This kind of progress in personalized medicine underscores the shift toward treatments that are not only more effective but also less burdensome for patients. It’s an exciting time for cancer care, and the Loveworld Medical Centre’s successful implementation of this therapy represents a key step forward in this field.
