BusinessDay 09 Feb 2018

Friday 09 February 2018
C002D5556
BUSINESS DAY
27
‘One-stop comprehensive cancer
centre can reduce death rate by 25%’
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
Project Pink Blue, a
non- governmental
organisation (NGO)
promoting cancer
awareness and management,
has called on the
Federal Government to invest
in a one-stop comprehensive
cancer care in the country to
reduce cancer mortality rate by
at least 25 percent.
The walk, race, cycle, ride,
skate and marathon against
cancer organised by the NGO,
took place in Abuja on February
4, in commemoration of the
World Cancer Day. The event
saw over 2000 Nigerians come
out in support to raise awareness,
promote early detection
of cancer and raise funds for
cancer patients in Nigeria.
“National Health Insurance
Scheme (NHIS) should
cover cancer treatment and
the Nigeria’s National Cancer
Control Plan should be budgeted
for and implemented.
We could prevent cancer death
by 25%” said Runcie Chidebe,
executive director of Project
PINK BLUE, the convener of
the Walk against cancer.
Runcie stated that 65 per
cent of cancer deaths occur in
low and middle income countries
like Nigeria. In Nigeria
alone, over 102,000 people are
diagnosed with cancer every
year and many of them cannot
afford cancer care and treatment.
“We also want to urge the Nigerian
government to invest in
cancer care and make cancer a
health priority. ‘I am appealing
to all Nigerians to please go for
screenings regularly and make
it a routine,”’ Chidebe said.
Also commenting on the
awareness exercise, Joe Okei-
Odumakin, a women’s right activist
and president of Women
Arise said that Cancer is the
second-leading cause of death
worldwide. A World Health
Organisation (WHO) reports
indicate that over 80,000 Nigerians
die of cancer annually.
“We must all give cancer
care and treatment a priority,
it is only a healthy people
that can build a more robust
economy, a secured nation, a
powerful country and the giant
of Africa that we all desire.
“If we allow cancer to continue
to take aware our mentors,
fathers, mothers and children,
then we are preparing
ourselves for failure,” Okei-
Odumakin said.
Sadiq Daba, a veteran broadcaster
with Nigerian Television
Authority (NTA) showed support
by participating in the
awareness and appreciated
Nigerians for their donations.
In his words, “I want to use
this amazing opportunity to
thank Nigerians who donated
for my cancer treatment; today,
I am alive because of your
donation. Please let’s not close
our eyes to millions of Nigerians
passing through a battle
with cancer. Nigerian government
needs to improve cancer
care in Nigeria and make
treatment available in Nigeria,”
Daba said.
Project PINK BLUE is a community-based
cancer nonprofit
with focus on cancer
awareness, free screening for
rural hard-to-reach communities
and poor women to phaseout
late diagnosis of cancer
and to reduce the incidence of
cancer in Nigeria.
Harnessing power of big data to drive clinical discovery
SAURABH SAHA
At Bristol-Myers Squibb,
we are at the forefront of
scientific advances aimed
at providing new standards of
care in areas of high unmet need.
As researchers, we are constantly
generating raw data from
a wide range of disciplines in our
efforts to solve emerging challenges
in medicine. Whether it
is analyzing tumor DNA or mapping
how certain medications
interact in the body, data and
analytics are at the heart of translational
medicine – research
that aims to further understand
disease biology and identify the
patients who may benefit from
certain treatment approaches –
and are a driving force behind our
discovery process across multiple
disease areas.
Translational medicine encompasses
multiple areas of
applied research, which work
in concert to help us quickly
analyze and interpret data from
the lab, implement new insights
in clinical trials and accelerate
the pipeline to identify the right
treatments, for the right patients,
at the right time. One of the most
critical pieces of this puzzle is
our ability to generate, integrate,
analyze and synthesize complex
data sets to develop actionable
insights and testable hypotheses
that help drive discovery and
clinical development.
One example of this is
in immuno-oncology, where
our Translational Bioinformatics
team is using cutting-edge algorithms
to sift through massive
raw genomics data. Whole Exome
Sequencing (WES) generates
data on tumour and blood samples
from clinical trials, which
we can use to identify mutations
present in the tumour and inherited
variants present in normal
tissues. This allows us to identify
correlations between patterns of
genes or mutations and responses
to certain therapies, which can
in turn guide treatment decisions
for patients. With more than
three billion letters in the human
genome, this may seem like an
impossible effort, but thanks to
a number of new experimental
and in silico technologies, we
are able to generate and analyze
unprecedented amounts.
Before the analysis stage, the
role of technology platforms can’t
be ignored when it comes to our
ability to generate enormous
volumes of data. Advances in
imaging and analytical sciences
have enabled us to generate more
precise and higher volumes of
data than ever before. Traditional
platforms, such as flow cytom-
etry, quantitative PCR and pathology,
are being augmented by
next generation sequencing, high
level multiplexing, quantitative
digital pathology and machine
learning, which are allowing us
to not only generate data faster,
but in many cases access raw
information that wasn’t available
before.
We’re also leveraging data to
design more streamlined clinical
trials and make it possible to develop
safe and effective therapies
at a fast rate. One way we do this is
through the use of mathematical
models that can show us how certain
therapies may interact with
the body, and with one another,
to help us predict how a medicine
might behave in clinical trials.
Rather than test every combination
in individual trials one by
one, a process that could take
decades, we are able to weed out
the incompatible pairings and
focus on the hypotheses most
likely to succeed.
The power of data and analytics
has led us to many discoveries
and shaved a significant amount
of time from the clinical development
process, and our work
continues. We are constantly
working to navigate and discover
new technologies and methods
of analyses that will bring us one
step closer to precision medicine
for all patients.
Saurabh Saha, Senior Vice
President and Global Head of
Translational Medicine
HBL TEAM
KEMI AJUMOBI, Editor - kemi@businessdayonline.com
ANTHONIA OBOKOH, ANI MICHAEL, Reporters I David Ogar, Graphics