Inauguration: Breast cancer clinic set up at Holy Family Hospital

Awareness month to be observed next month

A Breast Cancer Clinic, established at the Surgical Outdoor Patient Department OPD Unit 1 in Holy Family Hospital, was inaugurated on Friday.

After inaugurating the facility, Rawalpindi Medical College Principal Dr Muhammad Umar said that Pakistan is at an alarming state in terms or breast cancer as it reports the highest incidence of the disease in Asia. “One in every eight women in Pakistan will battle breast cancer during their life.”

He added that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Dr Umar said that different studies estimate that nearly 40,000 women die of breast cancer in Pakistan every year. “According to the World Health Organisation, breast cancer rates are getting worse and the trend is more towards younger people.”

Prof Umar further revealed that women in developing countries like Pakistan tend to die at greater rates than in more developed countries because the disease is generally detected later, when treatment success rates are lower.

Carrying the discussion forward, Prof Bushra said that in our society, there are multiple factors associated with late presentation of the disease. “One of them is the social setup, where women are reluctant to get medical checkups and express their medical issues. If women are being diagnosed with breast cancer, they don’t even share the news with their family members,” she said.

On taboos surrounding the disease, she noted that during awareness campaigns, volunteers could not even use the word ‘breast’ while talking to members of the general public. “We all must stand united to break these social taboos and stigmas. It may take very long for us to discuss these issues openly and get optimum results,” she urged.

Talking about future campaigns, Dr Jahangir Sarwar said that October is internationally marked as breast cancer awareness month. “We decided to observe it in Holy Family Hospital for the first time this year. Our objective was to increase awareness among the general public regarding the importance of early detection”. He said that their mission statement was ‘Early Detection Save Lives’, adding that they want to help women by increasing awareness regarding early detection of breast cancer through our support services.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2014.