The Director General of the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), Prof. Usman Malami Aliyu, on Monday, September 1, 2025, declared open the two-day Nigeria Cancer Science summit 2025.
The 2-day summit was with the theme: ‘From bench to bedside: building translational cancer research pipelines in Nigeria’.
The summit which took place in Lagos attracted cancer research experts and other stakeholders in the health sector from within and outside the country.
Speaking while declaring the Summit open, Prof. Malami said: “The key objectives of this summit include among others, to showcase scientific breakthroughs from Nigerian Cancer researchers, facilitate knowledge exchange with international collaborators; equip Nigerian researchers with tools for conducting translational and implementation research; develop a national agenda for digitization, AI integration, decentralized clinical trials and lay the foundation for the establishment of Cancer research centers of excellence in Nigeria.
“To achieve these objectives, NICRAT has invited relevant stakeholders to make impactful contributions to this summit. We have seated here representatives of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC); National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR); National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research & Development (NIPRD); and the famous Nigerian Natural Medicines Development Agency (NNMDA). Their presence here is a deliberate arrangement to enrich the discussions of this summit.”
The Keynote lecture with the theme: An integrated approach to Translational research in Africa: Lessons from CaPTC and Social, Ancestry, Molecular and Biological Analysis of Inequalities (SAMBAI), was delivered by the Director Translational Health Disparities, Johns Hopkins University, Prof Clayton Yates.
Other critical stakeholders including the President, Nigeria Cancer Society (NCS), the Coordinator, National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) at the Federal Ministry of Health, made remarkable input on relevance of the summit. The Summit was rounded up on Tuesday.