Story: George Ernest Asare, Kumasi
It is common to hear stories in the media about people resorting to various treatments, apart from orthodox health care for the treatment of diseases such as breast cancer.
A recent story on a television station about a young girl whose parents have taken her away from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, where she was being treated for breast cancer, to a female pastor at Nungua is, however serious and sad.
When interviewed the girl said she was made to bath at the beach with sea water at dawn every day and that had made her better.
The story, coming in the wake of persistent advise from health experts to women to do regular self examination of the breast and also go for regular check-ups at the hospitals for the early detection of any deformity in the breast, is quite incomprehensible.
Another story was told of a 42-year-old woman who nearly lost her life because she decided to go in for a herbal treatment at Ankaase, near Bekwai, instead of seeking medical treatment at a hospital for her breast cancer which had just started developing in her right breast.
After using the herbs to treat the seemingly painless boil on her breast without any positive results, resulting in the spreading of the cancer at an alarming rate, family members had to rush her to Peace and Love Hospital at Kentinkrono in Kumasi, where she was responding to treatment.
One can continue to enumerate countless examples of breast cancer patients, who because of fear refuse to seek medical treatment at the hospital at the initial stages of the disease and are therefore rushed to the hospital after the disease had reached an advanced stage.
That is after they resorted to the use of herbal concoctions and prayers at prayer camps.
A publication by the National Cancer Institute of the United States National Institutes of Health indicates that breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women. It says cancer begins in cells, the building blocks that make up body tissues
No one knows the exact causes of breast cancer. Doctors often cannot explain why one woman develops breast cancer and another does not. They do know that bumping, bruising, or touching the breast does not cause cancer. And breast cancer is not contagious. You cannot "catch" it from another person.
Research has shown that women with certain risk factors are more likely than others to develop breast cancer.
Studies have found the risk factors for breast cancer to include age, that is the chance of getting breast cancer goes up as a woman gets older, personal history of breast cancer, family history, certain breast changes, that is some women who have cells in the breast that look abnormal under a microscope increases the risk of breast cancer.
Other risk factors include gene changes, reproductive and menstrual history: That is women who had their first menstrual period before age 12, women who went through menopause after age 55, women who never had children and women who take menopausal hormone therapy with oestrogen plus progestin after menopause appear to have an increased risk of breast cancer.
Being overweight or obese after menopause and lack of physical activity by women throughout life may have an increased risk of breast cancer.
Mr F.N. Ghartey, the Executive Director of MAMMOCARE, a breast cancer awareness non-governmental organisation, was recently reported to have said that a number of women in Ghana do not realise they have breast cancer until the disease reaches an advanced stage.
That, he said was due to ignorance about the symptoms of the disease, and the fact that a number of women did not go for regular check-ups or do regular self-examination of their breasts.
There is one institution in Kumasi that has intensified educational campaigns to raise awareness about breast cancer and inculcate a sense of survival among breast cancer patients, that is Breast Care International (BCI), located at Oduom, a Kumasi suburb.
BCI, an NGO, established in October 2002 by Dr Mrs Beatrice Wiafe Addai, educates women about breast cancer, teach them how to undertake their own breast examination and seek clinical screening regularly to prevent complication of the disease.
The role of the organisation is to ensure that the cost of treatment of the disease, especially when it became complicated, was reduced, and also offer counselling to patients and help in their rehabilitation.
The free breast screening exercises undertaken by the organisation in the Ashanti Region, in particular and other parts of the country in general, have restored the hope of many patients, especially those who were seriously sick as a result of the complications of their ailment.
Such women have now become the vehicles that provide counselling to others who have fallen victim to the disease and have lost all hope to stay alive.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic Dr Wiafe Addai who specialised in Ultrasonography and Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy, as well as breast pathology , said her focus was to organise as many fora as possible to educate women to understand that breast cancer could be treated, especially when they reported for medical treatment early.
She said by educating women to be conscious about the disease and also undertake monthly self examination, complications associated with the disease would be greatly reduced and women would be able to live normal lives to enable them contribute more meaningfully towards sustainable national development.
Dr Wiafe Addai said it was necessary to demystify the myth surrounding breast cancer which was perceived as a disease caused by a curse from the devil, and look at it as a disease with many treatment options, which include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and biological therapy.
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