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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1418649
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Collaborative Efforts in Cancer Research: A Convening of North-Eastern Nigeria Universities and International Health Systems on Etiology, Care, and OutcomesView all 10 articles
Key Stakeholders' Experiences, Knowledge and Perspectives Regarding Care Quality for Breast Cancer in South-West Nigeria
Provisionally accepted
Adewumi Alabi1,2
Victoria Ainsworth3,4*
Abdulrazzaq Lawal5Darya Kizub6Jennifer Chin4Carly Woodmark7Olubukola Omidiji1Bolanle Adegboyega1,2
Anthonia Chima Sowunmi1,2
Adedoyin Ogunyemi8William Swanson9
Adedayo Joseph1,2Wil Ngwa4- 1Department of Radiation Biology, Radiotherapy, Radio-diagnosis and Radiography, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
- 2Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria
- 3University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, United States
- 4Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
- 5College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
- 6University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States
- 7Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington, United States
- 8Department of Community Health and Primary Health Care, College of Medicine, Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria
- 9Department of Radiation Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, New York, United States
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Patients with breast cancer in Nigeria face numerous barriers to and delays in care individually and structurally. These are often compounded by community-wide lack of breast cancer awareness, lack of funds, and fear. The submitted manuscript details patient experiences from their breast cancer treatment journeys and the outcomes of a subsequent continuing medical education (CME) course on breast cancer for providers. These efforts reflect the mission of Frontiers in Oncology particularly as they pertain to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) three and ten. This work identifies areas needing improvement in Nigerian breast cancer care from breast cancer patient testimony and reports on the outcomes of a CME created in part from the testimony. This work then advocates for further CME courses as well as community awareness initiatives, suggesting that partnering with local practitioners (spiritualists, herbalists, pharmacists, nurses etc.) would increase access and quality of care, facilitating screenings and earlier diagnosis. These efforts connect well with SDG goals focused on healthy lives and promotion of well-being as well as reducing inequalities within and among countries.
Keywords: breast cancer, patient experiences, Continuing medical education (CME), Delay of care, Nigeria, global health
Received: 27 Jun 2024; Accepted: 09 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alabi, Ainsworth, Lawal, Kizub, Chin, Woodmark, Omidiji, Adegboyega, Sowunmi, Ogunyemi, Swanson, Joseph and Ngwa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Victoria Ainsworth, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, United States
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