Breast cancer Patients face dilemma

Washington, July 13, GNA - A Radiation Oncologist has called for an extensive education of family members especially husbands to support women suffering from breast cancer to ensure that cases were reported early for treatment and management.

Dr Baffuor Awuah, a Radiation Oncologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that though breast cancer could be treated if detected early, most women in Ghana refused to disclose their status to enable them to receive early treatment because of unfavourable societal and cultural perceptions that militated against them.

"They feared they would lose their spouses and partners if they disclosed their condition. They even face a much more dilemma from other family members, who are likely to shun them due to their predicament or reprimand them for disclosing their status".

He said the situation painted a gloomy picture not only for the women, but also for the nation because "women out of fear keep the disease to themselves and open up when their condition were worse and treatment almost impossible".

This is because when they report late, there would be zero achievement since the patient would die any way making a waste of the efforts, treatment and management cost.

Dr Awuah was explaining a point to the GNA in Washington DC after he had presented a poster on "Marital Status and Stage of Breast Cancer Cases at the KATH at the 2006 Cancer Congress.

The Congress organised by the International Union against Cancer, The American Cancer Society and the European School of Oncology was on the theme "Bridging the Gap: Transforming Knowledge into Action". More than 5,000 delegates from about 130 countries including Ghana attended the Congress, which was aimed among other things to intensify efforts and prepare new grounds for the control of the global cancer scourge.

Dr Awuah was of the view that men should be involved at every stage of any treatment because whether the delayed reporting was from fear or not, most of the women reporting at the hospital were married. This required that their husbands should be educated and at the same time be involved in the treatment planning right from the beginning of the decision making, so that they could encourage their wives to obtain medical attention as early as possible to save their lives. "Most women especially in rural communities rely on their husbands as bread winners to take decision on a lot of family matters including receiving medical treatment and, therefore, their involvement in educational and sensitisation programmes on cancer issues would go a long way to alleviate the plight of many women, who should receive medical attention at any point in time."

The women, he said, should not be left out of the educational campaigns because there was the other perception that they would die if they underwent any surgery.

"This is not true at all. The reality is that the patients always come late when treatment is almost impossible."

Referring to some poster pictures depicting patients showing ulcerated (decomposing) breasts, Dr Awuah expressed regret that women needed not to go through all that pain because of negative cultural and societal perceptions militating against them.

He asked women to go for regular breast cancer screening and to seek medical attention on the onset of breast cancer infection. "Women should quickly seek medical attention instead of resorting to herbal treatment which did not help as the lumps appearing in the breast or in the armpit may not be boils at all.

Many of the patients confessed to be using herbal preparations for treatment and reported to the hospital only when they were already in the danger zone, Dr Awuah said and asked women to put their lives first in such situations.

Breast cancer accounts for 22 per cent out of the cases at the KATH Radiation Centre. Collating of data for annual reported cases is ongoing.

In general Ghana has no cancer registry with data scattered at the health facility levels. 13 July 06