Pakistan has highest rate of breast cancer in Asia: Speakers call for raising awareness on massive scale

LAHORE: Speakers at a seminar have called for raising awareness among the women about breast cancer on massive scale so that with early diagnosis, the spread of the disease could be checked.

They were speaking at a seminar on “Breast cancer prevention and wellness” organised by the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) in connection with the International Day against Breast Cancer.

Speaking on the occasion, the former first lady of Pakistan, Begum Samina Alvi said that a mass-level awareness drive at the neighborhood level should be launched to motivate Pakistani women to regularly self-examine their chests to detect any early symptoms of breast cancer.

“Mammogram screening was an expensive procedure for a vast majority of women from low and middle-income families to detect breast cancer,” Begum Alvi said, adding: “Pakistan also had a serious dearth of specialised public healthcare facilities offering mammography procedures, so self-examination becomes the first and most effective line of defence to protect Pakistani women from breast cancer.”

She said that breast cancer needs not to be considered taboo by any section of society, as it should be treated as a serious medical issue whose early detection is necessary to overcome the disease. She suggested that male members of society should also be fully aware of the fatal cancerous disease to play their part in protecting women in their families from breast cancer through early diagnosis and treatment.

“A mass-level collective effort is required against the alarming spread of breast cancer given that up to 100,000 new cases of the deadly disease are detected in Pakistan in a single year,” said Begum Alvi.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Bushra Maham from Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and Research Centre said that developed countries in the West had been less affected by breast cancer because of better diagnosis and treatment facilities accessible to patients.

She said the 22 percent of the patients treated at the Shaukat Khanum Hospital suffered from breast cancer, which is the highest ratio of any cancerous disease whose cases came to the hospital. She urged women above 40 to go for mammogram screening once every year for detection of cancerous cells, as the older females in Pakistan were at a greater risk of breast cancer.

Dr Zubala Yasir Lufti, Ruth Zia, Afia Salam, Ruqiya Naeem also spoke on the occasion. They urged the government to massively increase breast cancer diagnosis and treatment facilities, especially at major public hospitals, given the alarming spread of the fatal disease in Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024