Pecohub Nigeria needs about 120 radiotherapy machines to adequately treat all cancer patients in the country, but it has only 15, a figure far underserving for a population of over 200 million people, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The recent cancer control capacity and needs assessment report by IARC (2025) highlighted how insufficient cancer treatment facilities are undermining progress in the war against cancer in the country.
Only 15 radiotherapy machines exist in tertiary hospitals across Nigeria, with some centres non-functional and inadequate for a population of 223 million people
“Over 50 percent of cancer patients require radiation during their cancer treatment, and Nigeria has only 15 functional radiotherapy machines distributed across eight states (Lagos, Enugu, Ebonyi, Cross River, Borno, Abuja, Kano, and Sokoto) to serve a population of 223 million,” the IARC report stated.
“The country would require over 120 radiotherapy machines to adequately treat all cancer patients,” the report added.
Nigeria has a high cancer burden, having recorded about 269,109 five-year prevalent cases with over 127,000 new cases in 2022 alone, according to the Global Cancer Observatory report. Breast and prostate cancer were the most prevalent, and despite improvements made, several problems related to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer across the nation remain, the report added.
Disruptions in power supply,poor maintenance culture, skill gaps and insufficient radiotherapy machines are among the challenges undermining progress in the fight against cancer in the country according to Globocan,2022 report.
“Key challenges to continuous availability of radiotherapy services include disruptions in electricity supply and lack of maintenance contracts particularly in facilities outside the public-private partnerships framework,” the report stated.
“Radiotherapy training programs in place are also hampered by lack of functional radiation therapy equipment while quality management systems such as planning peer reviews or chart rounds are yet to be established,” the report added.
Some of the ripple effect to these challenges include longer waiting time, delayed or inadequate cancer patient management, misdiagnosis or fatalities, experts say.
There is a need to strengthen the existing cancer centres through increasing the number of functional machines along with deploying additional staff with an elaborate staff retention strategy in place, experts say.
