EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was reported in collaboration with the Global Health Reporting Center and support from the Pulitzer Center.
The small business owner was diagnosed with appendicitis. The university lecturer and the government clerk, both struggling with stomach pain for more than a year, were told they had ulcers. In each case, the real problem turned out to be colorectal cancer. By the time they were diagnosed, all three required major surgery and nearly a year of debilitating chemotherapy treatments.
These patients live in and around Ile-Ife, a city in southwestern Nigeria, where they shared their stories with CNN. All three were ultimately treated at the Obafemi Awolowo University teaching hospital by Dr. Olusegun Alatise, a professor of surgery.
When he began surgical training in the early 2000s, Alatise was taught that colorectal cancer was rare in sub-Saharan Africa. But it didn’t match what he saw with his own eyes.
“It was supposed to be very rare, but we [the teaching hospital] were seeing a case every week,” he said. “We are talking about an exponential increase in the incidence of colorectal cancer.”
