A cure for skin cancer: Doctors announce historic breakthrough as 'spectacular' drugs brings hope

Scientists have developed breakthrough drugs that cure skin cancer.
The treatment is already having ‘spectacular’ effects in seriously ill melanoma patients – and could soon be used to defeat other types of cancer.
One scientist said it was ‘amazing’ that researchers could talk  of ‘using the C-word – cure’ for the first time, while another said trials among kidney and lung cancer patients are ‘very exciting’.

One in six patients ravaged by deadly skin cancer are already being cured by the drugs, the European Cancer Congress was told yesterday, with the possibility of more than half being saved with an new combination.
The astonishing development will save  the lives of thousands of patients with advanced melanoma, who usually die within months of being diagnosed. The new treatment, which will bring hope to  hundreds of thousands of people in Britain with terminal conditions, involves the combination of two  different types of drug that ‘reboot’ the immune system.
 The first is ipilimumab – or ‘ipi’. According to research presented to the European congress in Amsterdam yesterday, 17 per cent of patients are cured by this drug alone.
But many more – perhaps more than half – could be ‘clinically cured’ by combining them with even newer drugs called anti-PD1s which break down cancer cells’ defences.

Fake doctor takes delivery of over 90 babies

A man who holds a secondary school certificate, Stephen Nwankwo, but worked as a doctor in a fake hospital has been arrested alongside the owner of the hospital.

Nwankwo said they took delivery of over 90 babies within the two years he worked in the hospital established by 39-year-old Gabriel Onyema, another secondary school leaver, who lives in Ghana and sells paper.

The suspects spoke with journalists while being paraded on Friday at the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja.

Spokesperson for the police command, Ngozi Braide, said Nwankwo and Onyema were arrested by officers of Area ‘E’ Police Command, FESTAC Town, after a pregnant woman, who had gone to the hospital, died during labour.

40-year-old Nwankwo said he was an auxiliary doctor in a hospital in Ondo State before he moved to Lagos, where he was employed by Onyema.

But while being questioned by journalists, it turned out that he was only a non-medical employee in the unnamed hospital.

The suspect said, “I worked in a hospital in Ondo State sometime ago. I finished from a secondary school before getting a job in Care Hospital, Iba.

“I met Gabriel (Onyema) in the house where he was living in Iba and told him the house was good for a hospital. We then teamed up and entered into a partnership with another man, Dr. Abayomi.

“Gabriel later said I should start working in the hospital as a doctor as well. We undertook up to 90 deliveries. There was a delivery we started about 8 am but did not end until 4 pm. The woman lost a lot of blood. When the baby did not come out on time, we used hand to pull the baby out.”

He, however, claimed that the woman and her baby survived the operation.

Onyema said he lives mostly in Ghana “where I sell bond papers.”

Asked if the hospital was registered, he said, “Work is ongoing on the registration.”

He stated, “I don’t really know all the details of what the doctors I employed there do. They are in the best position to tell you since I was always in Ghana.”

When journalists asked if he was aware his employees perform illegal procedures in the hospital, Onyema said, “Ask me a valid question.” He refused to answer questions onwards.

Meanwhile, the police also paraded four robbery suspects who were arrested during a gun battle with a team of anti-robbery men in Okokomaiko area of Lagos.