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A) CULTURAL, non- political and non- profit- making association of lbadan indigenes resident in Lagos, Oluyole Club, at the weekend, enlightened Nigerians on rectal cancer during its 2021 yearly lecture and bursary awards in Ikeja.

The guest lecturer, Prof. Bashir Akande, who spoke on the theme, The scourge of large bowel and rectal cancer: Need for greater awareness among the populace, noted that the cancer of the bowel is the commonest in the digestive system worldwide, with its 80 per cent prevalence in the last two decades.

He said that the low incidence in Africa had been attributed to presumed consumption of vegetable fibres in continental dietary items, unlike Caucasians that consumed predominantly low residue and fatty diet with longer intestinal transit times.

“The bulky and fibre- rich African diet led to shorter transit times. So, the dietary toxins had little time to produce changes that led to damage to intestinal mucosa and cancer.

“The disease is inherited as an autosomal dominant gene, and it runs from parent to offspring, and it can affect a few siblings,” he stated.

On the symptoms, he observed that the disease presents in diverse ways, saying that for such patients, multivitamins and Iron tablets alone would only prolong the evil days.

Management of the sickness, the professor of medicine pointed out, should be decided after a concrete diagnosis, accompanied by far- reaching findings and recommendations.

Earlier, the club’s president,