By Nana Ama Mensah
Tema, Oct. 20, MNN – Dr. John Nana Nkrumah, a General Surgeon at the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority Hospital, has revealed that about 7.3 million people are living with various stages of breast cancer disease worldwide over the past five years.
He said people have had it and recovered fully, while others had it, and are on surveillance or monitoring, chemotherapy, and palliative care, and still survived.
Dr. Nkrumah stated during a breast cancer awareness health walk organized by the GPHA’s Health Services Department which was monitored by the Myliberty News Network (MNN) in Tema.
The health walk and seminar form part of activities earmarked by the GPHA health department to join the world in celebrating Pink Month with breast screening on the theme: “Breast Cancer, Early Detection, Saves Life”.
Quoting the American Cancer Society, Dr Nkrumah said the statistics indicate that 13 out of 100 women stand the risk of getting diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States, except for skin cancers. It is about 30 percent (or 1 in 3) of all new female cancers each year.
He said breast cancer mainly occurs in middle-aged and older women explaining that the median age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis is 62.
“This means half of the women who developed breast cancer are 62 years of age or younger when they are diagnosed. A very small number of women diagnosed with breast cancer are younger than 45,” he said.
Mrs. Sandra Opoku, Director of GPHA Tema Port encouraged all females to do self-breast assessment as she shared her breast cancer survival story with staff of the company.
Mrs. Opoku noted that she is a survivor of breast cancer after eight years of being diagnosed; self-assessment of the breast monthly, was very important adding that any unusual thing detected in the breast should immediately be reported to the hospital for the necessary screening, diagnosis and treatment.
Dr. Helen Tettey, Administrator of the GPHA Hospital in Takoradi said early detection could save a life and therefore reiterated the need for screening.
She said it was worrying that as at the year 2020, over 250,000 cases of breast cancer had been diagnosed in Ghana.
Source: MNN
