Why these cancer patients face a lonely fight

Global Health Why these cancer patients face a lonely fight July 25, 20267:51 AM ET By  Durrie Bouscaren Hundreds of people gather in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, to mark World Cancer Day on February 7, marching to raise awareness about cancer and the importance of early diagnosis. The World Health Organization cites Nigeria as a country with a rapidly rising number of cancer cases. Emmanuel Osodi/Anadolu/via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Emmanuel Osodi/Anadolu/via Getty Images When Titilayo found a lump in her left breast, it felt like a death sentence. "My world was crumbling," she says. "I had no hope, I had no life." Titilayo — who asked NPR to only share her first name in order to speak openly about her cancer and its impact on her life — lives in a small city in southern Nigeria. To find out if the lump was malignant, she had to wait for weeks for a biopsy sample to be sent to Abuja, Nigeria's capital city. When she got the news that the lump was cancerous, the doctor recommended that she undergo a mastectomy and multiple rounds of chemotherapy. Sponsor Message But the chemotherapy infusions she needed weren't always available where she lived, requiring her to find them in another state and bring them to the hospital. "The burden of getting the chemotherapy drugs — the burden was on me," Titilayo recalls. But her three daughters were young. They needed her. So she decided that whatever happened, she would pursue treatment. "If I die of this thing, who would be able to care for my children?" Titilayo says. "I discovered that my life is worth fighting for." One in five people alive today will face cancer in their lifetime. But while cancer treatments and survival rates are improving in wealthy countries, that's not the case in places where the rate of cancer diagnosis is rising the fastest. The World Health Organization projects that by 2050, cases of cancer in sub-Saharan Africa will more than double; the highest rate of increase predicted in...