Abuja: The Federal Government has welcomed the unveiling of the ‘Lancet Oncology Commission on Cancer Workforce: A Global Crisis’, describing it as a timely call to strengthen cancer care systems globally. Dr. Uche Nwokwu, National Coordinator of the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP), said this in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja following the report’s unveiling at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Nwokwu said the report highlighted an urgent global shortage of cancer care workers and projected a shortfall of 100 million cancer workforce personnel by 2050 amid rising cancer incidences worldwide. He noted that the findings reflected existing challenges across Nigeria and many African countries, including late presentation of cancer cases, diagnostic delays, overstretched oncology teams, and limited specialist capacity.
He emphasized that Nigeria’s National Cancer Control Plan 2026-2030 has already outlined strategies to address the oncology workforce gap, providing a framework that could serve as a model for other countries. Nwokwu said the report reinforced the need for countries to move beyond planning and implement measurable actions to strengthen cancer workforce capacity and improve patient outcomes.
He quoted Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, Chief Executive Officer of Medicaid Cancer Foundation and President-Elect of the Union for International Cancer Control, as welcoming the commission’s inauguration. Shinkafi-Bagudu stressed the importance of investing in people, not only infrastructure, to deliver equitable cancer care. She highlighted the need for investments across prevention, early detection, treatment, survivorship, and palliative care to improve access to quality cancer services.
The statement also quoted Prof. Folakemi Odedina, Chair of the NCCP Technical Working Group, as describing the report’s inauguration as critical for Nigeria’s cancer control efforts. Odedina called for sustained commitment from government, professional bodies, training institutions, development partners, and the wider health system to bridge the cancer workforce gap.
Nwokwu further quoted Dr. Nwamaka Lasebikan of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, and co-author of the commission, who emphasized the implications of the findings for Africa. Lasebikan highlighted the need for deliberate investment in cancer workforce planning, training, retention, task-sharing, digital tools, and strong cancer systems, stating that the cancer workforce is the foundation of high-quality cancer care.
The commission calls for coordinated action to strengthen cancer workforce registries, expand oncology training programmes, and improve retention across health systems. Investments are also needed for nurses, diagnostics teams, radiotherapy professionals, pathologists, imaging specialists, palliative care providers, data teams, and community-level health workers. The report further highlighted the importance of digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, task-sharing approaches, and sustainable financing mechanisms in improving access and continuity of cancer care.
Nwokwu concluded by underscoring that cancer control could not succeed through infrastructure investments alone but required strong systems, financing, governance, data, and human resources. He said the inauguration of the report served as a call to action for the global cancer community and a call to implementation for Nigeria as it advanced its cancer control agenda.