Nigerian woman cured of rare form of cancer in Indian hospital

A Nigerian woman has been cured of a rare form of cancer in a hospital in India after suffering for years without cure.

37-year-old Amina Abubakar had allegedly been misdiagnosed with breast cancer in Nigeria but when she did not recover after three years of receiving treatment in Nigeria, she travelled to India where she was diagnosed of Skin cancer.

Amina was first diagnosed in Nigeria in 2014. She began receiving treatment and was bed ridden but there was no improvement.  Amina, a final year medical student, was advised by a local doctor to travel to India and seek help. She travelled to Bengaluru in India and was properly diagnosed of having a rare skin cancer on the breast, Bangalore Mirror reports.

Speaking about her condition, Amina said,

“I found a lump on the left breast in November 2014 and then was diagnosed as chronic mastitis in local hospital in Nigeria. I have suffered wong diagnosis and lack of treatment for years. I was physically and mentally broken and was unable to deal with the pain and the foul smell that comes with cancer.”

She adds, “My family and I got very anxious about this situation and on the recommendation of a local doctor decided to visit Dr Anthony Pais at Cytecare for treatment."

 "Skin cancer on the breast and infiltrating it is the rarest of the rare cancers in the world. This was the first treatment for a rare form of skin cancer – Syringocystadeno carcinoma paplliferum, which was diagnosed and treated in the world. It is one such case where the right diagnosis was the game-changer in the treatment of the disease,” claimed Dr Anthony Pais.

He continued:

 “There are two types of skin cancer – melanoma and non-melanoma, most of them being non-melanoma. Among all the non-melanoma skin cancers, 75% of them are basal cell cancers; 20% of them are squamous cell cancers and about 2% of them being adnexal skin tumours. Most of these adnexal tumours are benign. The rarity of this adnexal skin cancer involving the breast is the rarest of the rare cancer. In this case, the problem started with the wart and with a birthmark close by, which is technically called a nevus. This grew over a period of time.”

Amina is expected to return to Nigeria on Saturday and will continue a follow-up at a Nigerian hospital for about two more months.