The Vice President of the Breast Cancer Society of Ghana, Dr Kwesi Anyanful has cautioned the public against stigmatization of breast cancer patients.
Speaking to ATLFM news during a breast cancer walk held at Cape Coast, on October 21, 2023, to climax the breast cancer awareness week, he said breast cancer is never a curse but rather a disease.
He said the surge of breast cancer among women is partly attributed to the recent change in environment which has resulted in excess radiation and toxins.
He therefore appealed to the general public to support people with breast cancer and not discriminate against them.
Dr. Kwesi Ayanful explained that formerly, breast cancer cases were more restricted to families with a history of such cases however, people without any family history of breast cancer become victims in recent times.
“We have too much radiation and too much toxins in the environment, and that is changing our DNA. Cancer starts with the change of DNA. So, breast cancer is not a curse. So let us not stigmatize people,” he continued.
According to the Vice President of the Breast Cancer Society of Ghana, 2018 global statistics on breast indicate that over 2 million women worldwide were diagnosed with breast cancer out of which 600,000, representing 30% died.
He said in Ghana, the latest data of reported breast cancer cases at the hospitals stood at 4,000 every year and out of this number, 2,000 representing 50% lost their lives.
On the need to seek early medical screening, Dr. Anyanful revealed that unlike whites, blacks have the worst prognosis, triple negative which does not respond to most of the available, treatments.
“So that’s why for us blacks, we always want early detection. And if you take whites, they get their breast cancers average at 50 years old, we blacks get it at 40 years old. So, we must start screening at least 30 years, because we always screen ten years before the average onset of breast cancer”.
He further stated that in November this year, the Breast Cancer Society in collaboration with RUSH Diagnostics will hold a media engagement program across the country aimed at giving breast cancer patients the opportunity to share their experiences with the general public.
“So next month’s media engagement will be mostly with breast cancer survivors who will be on the radio telling you what it feels like the moment you are told that you have breast cancer and what it feels like the moment you are told that you’ve beaten breast cancer”.
This year’s breast cancer awareness campaign is spearheaded by the Breast Cancer Society of Ghana in partnership with the Centre for Coastal Management- The Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR), University of Cape Coast.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Centre for Coastal Management- The Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR), UCC, Professor Dennis Worlanyo Ahetor, described the current statistics of breast cancer in Ghana of 4000 out of which about half die every year as alarming.
Due to this, he pledged his outfit’s continuous support to work closely with the Breast Cancer Society of Ghana to bring breast cancer awareness to the doorstep of women and households, adding that this awareness would encourage a lot more people to go for screening.
“As a centre, we are committed to some of these corporate social actions for the betterment of society”.
Professor Dennis Worlanyo Ahetor said there are also reported cases of infections among men and therefore urged men to also take an active part in checking their breasts as well.
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Source: Linda Afful/ATLFMNEWS
