Closing cancer care gap critical

Cancer continues to be a life-threatening disease globally and efforts to close the care gap have not been easy.

In Ghana, the Global Cancer Statistics (GLOBOCAN) estimate that 16,600 cases of cancer occur annually, yielding an age-standardised rate of 109.5 cases per 100,000 people.

Epidemiological studies have also revealed the prevalence of prostate cancer in the country as being more than 200 per 100,000 males, while the incidence of breast cancer is estimated to be 76 per 100,000 women.

It is against this backdrop that Ghana joined hands with the global community to commemorate World Cancer Day last Friday, on the theme: "Closing the care gap”.

February 4, every year is set aside to echo the health threat of cancer, and for this year, the focus is on understanding and recognising the inequities in cancer care around the globe.

Concerning the alarming nature of high cancer prevalence in the country, we consider the theme "Closing the care gap” as critical to saving lives in the country.

To close the cancer care gap, we believe that as a nation we need to redouble efforts at non-communicable diseases, which have proved to be silent killers in Ghana.

Finding solutions to non-communicable diseases, including cancer, has been quite elusive, but we must keep working hard until we find a permanent or lasting cure.

As far back as 2015, Ghana developed a national strategic plan, with technical support from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners, aimed at clamping down on the increasing number of cancer cases in the country.

The plan called on the Ghanaian public to be willing to help in prevention activities and spread the message of early diagnosis and the fact that cancers can be cured.

It is unfortunate that in Ghana, efforts at prevention activities are very casual, leaving the care till the very last hour, many a time leading to a crisis situation.

We fail to spread the message of early diagnosis, which also does not help in closing the care gap.

The Ghana Strategic Plan, which seeks to provide national direction, aimed at reducing cancer mortality by 30 per cent through primary prevention, effective screening and early detection and improve effective diagnosis and treatment, is a laudable one, in our view, and if implemented to the letter, can save many lives.

We also think there is the need to improve the quality of life cancer patients and their families to enable them to carry out activities of daily living.

There is also the need to strengthen and support rehabilitation and palliative care to empower cancer patients to actively manage their condition themselves, enabling them to live fully and enjoy the best quality of life possible.

The Daily Graphic is worried that six years (since 2015) after the launch of the plan, cancer continues to be a life-threatening disease in the country.

The very things that the plan sought to address; that is, late reporting to health facilities, superstition about the disease and the general unwillingness to report cancer cases to health facilities, remain the stumbling block to cancer care today.

We are asking: what happened to such a beautiful strategy, which was developed with taxpayers’ sweat, with support from our development partners, which was to be implemented down to the district level?

We are of the strong view that if this strategic plan is yet to be fully implemented, it is not too late to go ahead with it; after all, whatever it sought to solve those days remains relevant today.

We are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world off the ground, Ghana being no exception, and thus diverted all attention towards combating it, but we still believe that equal attention is needed on the non-communicable diseases such as cancer, which is killing far more than even the dreaded COVID-19.

The Daily Graphic sees the figures on the prevalence rate of cancer in the country as unacceptable, alarming and a real health threat. There is the urgent need for Ghana to have a relook at the issue of non-communicable diseases and do everything possible to reverse the scary trend.