‘Cancers leading cause of death among Ghanaians’

Breast, cervical and prostate cancersglobal health workshop organised by the Rosewell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) of the United States of America (USA) and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) of the University of Ghana, Legon, in Accra yesterday.

The workshop, which was also organised in conjunction with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, brought together doctors, researchers and pathologists from the KBTH, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Ghana and others from Nigeria. Also in attendance were physicians and surgeons from the USA. 

It was aimed at identifying priority areas for collaborative research, training and enhancing prevention and therapy of breast, cervical and prostate cancers.

However, Professor Clegg-Lamptey said, the magnitude of the problem was yet to be determined because Ghana did not have a cancer registry to take record of all cancer-related diseases.

Currently, researchers only rely on institutional registry from the KBTH and KATH in Accra and Kumasi respectively.

Cancers in Ghana

 Prof. Clegg-Lamptey, who spoke on the topic, “Overview of breast cancer incidence and care in Ghana”, said the cancer situation was worsened by the fact that people refused to seek early treatment for, especially, breast cancer, and only reported when the disease was in its advanced stage.

He said early detection was key and called for more education to make people with the disease report early for treatment.

He said so far, the KBTH had also put in place measures such as the training of two specialised nurses who counselled cancer patients and followed up on them to ensure that the patients made progress with their treatment.

Global situation

Speaking on “Epidemiology of breast, cervical and prostate cancers,” a Cancer Epidemiologist and Surgical Oncologist from the RPCI, Professor Chukumere Nwogu, said the cancer burden in West Africa was dominated by breast, prostate and cervical cancers.

He underscored the fact that the most significant challenge in the region was late presentation, saying that those cancers were amenable to early detection.

According to Prof Nwogu, 14.1 million new cases were recorded in 2012, with 8.2 million people dying from the three cancers globally.

He said 65 per cent of those cancer deaths occurred in low and middle-income countries.

Globally, breast cancer was the most common cancer in women, affecting about 1.6 million in 2012, he said.

He said it was also the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide, killing 522,000 that year.

On cervical cancer, Professor Nwogu said 528,000 new cases were recorded worldwide in 2012, leading to 266,000 deaths. 

With regard to prostate cancer, Prof. Nwogu said it was the second most common cancer in men worldwide, saying that an estimated 1.1 million cases and 307,000 deaths were recorded in 2012.

Need for action

The Director of the NMIMR, Prof. Kwadwo Koram, in a welcome address, said breast, cervical and postate cancers were affecting many people, a situation which needed urgent attention to avoid becoming catastrophic.

He noted that while much attention was being given to infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases such as cancers and hypertension were also affecting a lot of people in the country and beyond.