Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer in Asia as one out of every nine women in Pakistan faces the risk of breast cancer. The prevalence of this deadly ailment is the highest amongst all types of cancers in the country, ie 38.5 percent.
An early diagnosis of the condition increases a patient's chance of survival by 90 percent. But due to lack of awareness, breast cancer cases are often reported at advanced stages. This contributes to over 40,000 deaths every year in the country, Chief Executive Pink Ribbon Omer Aftab said.
Omer Aftab mentioned that despite the fact that breast cancer takes thousands of precious lives every year, the awareness about the disease is very low amongst the masses. He also expressed concerns over the lack of medical facilities for breast cancer in the country.
He said, "Our scope of work is holistic from public awareness to strategic interventions including advocacy and service delivery. We strive to significantly reduce breast cancer mortality in the country by creating widespread awareness through community engagement on prevention, early detection and increased access to treatment. We have empowered 1,050,000 women through community education on breast health, provided free clinical breast examinations to 29,000 symptomatic patients through expert doctors, free mammograms to 3,700 of the poorest-of-the poor women, and educated at least 650,000 young girls through direct interaction in 200 universities and colleges,"