First Lady calls for early detection, effective treatment of cancer
The First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has called for early detection of cancer through screening and effective treatment options.
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That, she said, was necessary “if we are to make headway in improving the sad outcomes of Ghanaians with breast cancer”.
Launching this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra yesterday, Mrs Akufo-Addo said there were many misconceptions about the disease that needed to be addressed.
She cited, for instance, the false claims of treatment on the Internet and social media platforms and from friends, relatives and even casual acquaintances that needed to be dealt with.
October is marked all over the world as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is a period for drawing attention to and creating awareness of the problem of breast cancer.
The theme for this year’s celebration is: “Early detection and effective treatment save lives.”
Statistics
GLOBOCAN, a comprehensive cancer surveillance database managed by the International Association of Cancer Registries, estimates that 16,600 cases of cancer occur annually in Ghana.
It estimates that breast and cervical cancers are the two most common cancers among women in Ghana, with cervical cancer leading.
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Ghana is also said to have an estimated population of more than seven million women, aged 15 years and older, who are at risk of developing cervical cancer.
Currently, GLOBOCAN estimates indicate that every year about 3,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, with about 1,500 of them dying from the disease.
The estimated crude incidence rate for cervical cancer in Ghana is 26.4 per 100,000 per year.
Actual cause
The First Lady said not much was known about the actual cause of breast cancer and, therefore, how to prevent it.
“Factors such as genetic predisposition cannot be modified, while others, such as diet and other healthy lifestyle changes, obviously help but are not enough to prevent the disease from occurring,” she added.
However, Mrs Akufo-Addo said, with medical advancement in the developed world, there was hope for patients, adding that breast cancer survival in the advanced countries had improved over the last few decades due to early detection through effective screening and effective treatment through research.
“Clearly, the problem is late presentation and delayed treatment,” she said, adding that effective treatment was available in Ghana.
She, therefore, encouraged women to report early and comply with treatment that had been proved to be effective.
“It is important that we access proven treatment methods and educate others to do the same,” she said.
Interventions
In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said despite the progress made in cancer prevention and treatment in the country, there were still challenges.
The challenges, he stated, include low levels of awareness among the public, late reporting of cases to health facilities, negative socio-cultural beliefs affecting people’s behaviour to seek care, limited human resource, low interest by development partners, lack of basic equipment, limited resources, among others.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Felix Anyah, said over the past years, the hospital had made significant strides in the management of breast cancer, adding that the hospital now treated breast cancer patients from across the country, the West African sub-region and beyond.
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