Breast cancer: Late-diagnosis blamed for half the deaths

‘With early detection and treatment recovery is guaranteed in 70%’.

LAHORE: At least 50 per cent deaths from breast cancer in Pakistan occur because the patients do not receive proper treatment due to late diagnosis, said a consultant radiologist on the opening day of 10th Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Symposium on Friday.

She was speaking during a session on breast cancer and its prevention.

She said breast cancer was easily detectable. “Early diagnosis can lower mortality rate by 90 per cent,” she said. She added that one in nine women in the country was likely to suffer from breast cancer.

Other speakers said breast cancer was the fastest spreading cancer in Asia. Pakistan, they said, had been declared a high-risk region. They said that women aged 20 to 40 should get a clinical examination once every three months and those above 40 once a year.

Other sessions on the first day were on urological oncology, pediatric oncology, pathology, cancer prevention and nursing.

Papers were also presented on colo-rectal cancer, management of rare breast neoplasms, retinoblastoma, pediatric abdominal masses and urethral cancer.

Earlier, SKMCH&RC Chief Executive Officer Dr Faisal Sultan said that symptoms of cancer included weight loss, lack of appetite and prolonged sickness. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the symposium.

He said doctors had been invited from all over the country and abroad to present papers and to share their knowledge on cancer and its prevention.

He said SKMCH was the only private-sector facility providing free treatment to deserving cancer patients. Dr Samar Mubarakmand and Imran Khan were scheduled to attend the opening ceremony but did not turn up.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2011.