About 4,500 new cases of breast cancer are recorded every year in Ghana, a Professor of Surgery at the University of Ghana Medical School, Professor Joe Nat Clegg-Lamptey, has said.
He said 40 per cent of the number died from the disease, saying that the situation would get worse due to late treatment.
Prof. Clegg-Lamptey made this known when the Trust Hospital Company Limited launched the 2022 breast cancer awareness month (Pink October) in Accra today (Monday, October 3), on the theme, “Driving towards holistic breast cancer care”.
Women who would be diagnosed with breast cancer during the screening exercises, organised as part of activities for the campaign, would be supported.
The screening will be organised at places such as the Trust Hospital head office, Prudential Bank, SIC, Hollard Insurance, Sakummono District Cluster of Schools, the Presbyterian Church, all Trust Clinics as well as institutions and organisations that will want the screening to be done for their staff throughout the month of October.
Prof Clegg-Lamptey said the type of breast cancer affecting black people, which he described as aggressive, contributed to the situation getting worse but said women who sought early diagnosis survived, identifying some of the reasons for late reporting to hospital as stigmatisation and fear of having their breast removed.
He, however, indicated that it was important to counter such misconceptions to convince women to seek early treatment.
Prof Clegg-Lamptey noted that their researchers at Korle-bu Teaching Hospital had shown that 92 per cent persons with stage zero to stage one breast cancer were cured, however, only 15 per cent of those who came with very late presentation could be cured.
He said early diagnoses and treatment was crucial, and therefore, called for an intensified advocacy to convince people to come in early for diagnoses and treatment.
Prof. Clegg-Lamptey urged people to seek breast cancer treatment in the country and not travel outside.
“Treatment of breast cancer in this country is as good as anywhere else. We have had so many patients go for treatment abroad and they are told the same treatment is being offered in Ghana. Some of them have come back and had their treatment,” he said.
The Board Chairperson of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Elizabeth Ohene, reiterated the call for women to seek early diagnoses.
She said breast cancer, per assurances from health practitioners, indicated that there was nothing to be ashamed of or terrified to be diagnosed or treated.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Trust Hospital Company Limited, Dr Juliana Oyeh Ameh, announced that the hospital had collaborated with Roche Pharmaceuticals to offer chemotherapy services at the Trust Hospital Premium Centre.
“We have put together a multi-discipline team of various specialists, including an oncologist, as the first step to our cancer treatment strategy,” she indicated.
SOURCE : Graphiconline
