The Federal Government and experts in cancer care have called for increased investment in radiopharmaceutical therapy, research, infrastructure and manpower development to expand access to precision cancer treatment in Nigeria and across Africa.
The call was made in Lagos at the International Symposium on Radiopharmaceutical Therapy (ISRT) 2026, organised to advance the use of radiotheranostics and precision oncology in Africa.
The symposium brought together experts, clinicians, researchers and other stakeholders to examine developments in radiopharmaceutical therapy and its potential to transform cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Representing the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, the Director of Research at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Dr David Oladele, said radiopharmaceutical therapy had become an important frontier in modern medicine, offering opportunities for more targeted and effective cancer treatment.
“Radio-pharmaceutical therapy represents an important frontier in modern medicine. By combining advances in nuclear medicine, molecular imaging, pharmaceutical sciences, oncology and medicinal medicine, it offers opportunities for more targeted and effective treatment of cancer while potentially reducing some of the limitations that are associated with conventional therapies,” Oladele said.
He said Nigeria’s response to cancer must go beyond improving access to conventional treatment, stressing the need to embrace innovation, strengthen research and development and build the workforce and infrastructure required for advanced therapy.
“Our initial response must go beyond improving access to conventional cancer services to embrace innovation, strengthening research and development, building a skilled workforce and establishing the infrastructure and regulatory system required for safe and sustainable delivery of advanced therapy,” he said.
Oladele urged greater collaboration between Nigerian and international institutions, saying such partnerships would promote technology transfer, research and the development of local capacity for radiopharmaceutical therapy.
Also speaking, the Executive Minister of Health and Social Services and Chairman of the Board of Loveworld Medical Centre, Dr Deola Phillips, said the development of precision oncology in Africa required sustained investment in knowledge, technology and human capacity.
Phillips said the medical centre had expanded its specialist services to 43 areas and developed capabilities in nuclear medicine, supported by advanced diagnostic equipment.
She said the symposium was designed to share knowledge and build expertise that could be replicated across the continent.
“Knowledge becomes powerful when it is shared and our goal is not just to keep expertise within one institution but to multiply it across Africa,” Phillips said.
The Chief Medical Director of Loveworld Medical Centre, Pastor Dr Emeka Eze, said radiopharmaceutical therapy could significantly change cancer treatment because it targets diseased cells more precisely.
He explained that conventional chemotherapy could affect both cancerous and healthy rapidly dividing cells, resulting in side effects such as hair loss, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and bone marrow suppression.
“These radionuclide materials only target diseased cells. They don’t go after all rapidly dividing cells. So the side effect profile is almost zero and that’s a huge difference,” Eze said.
He, however, acknowledged that radiotheranostics remained expensive, calling for support from foundations and other stakeholders to help patients who could not afford the treatment.
The Director of Operations and Head of Nuclear Medicine at Loveworld Medical Centre, Dr Masha Maharaj, explained that theragnostics combines diagnosis and treatment by identifying a disease pathway and subsequently targeting the same pathway for treatment.
“That’s how theragnostics came about. It was our ability to be able to diagnose a pathway disease, a disease pathway, and subsequently treat the same disease. So, what we see, we can treat,” Maharaj said.
She said the approach represented a major difference from conventional chemotherapy because radiopharmaceuticals could bind to receptors expressed by tumour cells, enabling doctors to target cancer more precisely.
“Whereas in theragnostics, it binds to a particular receptor that is expressed by that tumour. So, it directly targets, it’s called precision oncology, directly targeting that tumour cell, causing the least to no harm to any cell adjacent to that,” she said.
Maharaj disclosed that the centre had treated patients with breast, colorectal, prostate and lung cancers, as well as sarcoma, using the technology. She said radiotheranostics could improve patients’ quality of life and produce significant outcomes even in advanced cases.
“We are finding now with theragnostics that there’s two important factors. One, the quality of life of a patient is improved… And two, we are able to bring a disease from an end stage into improvement and into curative,” she said.
Maharaj stressed the need to train more doctors and healthcare professionals to identify patients who could benefit from the treatment. “Our symposium is meant to also train doctors. More importantly, we want every doctor to know how to handle a patient, how to manage, when to select, when not to select,” she said.
Also speaking, the Executive Minister of Humanitarian Affairs for the LoveWorld Nation and Director of the Chris Oyakhilome Foundation International, Pastor Arinze Emmanuels, said the foundation would support efforts to expand access to advanced cancer treatment through infrastructure, research, training and partnerships.
Emmanuels said Africa should develop its capacity to create and sustain its own healthcare solutions rather than remain dependent on external expertise.
“We believe Africa should not only be the recipient of healthcare solutions, Africa must increasingly develop the capacity to create, to support, and sustain its own solutions,” he said.
He called for stronger partnerships among governments, healthcare institutions, researchers, investors and philanthropic organisations to build a sustainable radiotheragnostic system capable of improving access to precision cancer care across Africa.
