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Breast Cancer treatment must be decentralized in Ghana - Medical Officer

By Wendy Amarteifio
breast cancer
Breast Cancer treatment must be decentralized in Ghana - Medical Officer
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A Medical Officer and team leader of the Trust hospital's Pink October Campaign, Dr. Victoria Partey Newman has called for the decentralization of breast cancer treatment across the country.

According to her, breast cancer treatment must move away from a single administrative centre which is the Korle bu Teaching Hospital to other locations to improve healthcare delivery in the country, especially in women.

Her comment is in relation to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Breast Cancer Awareness Month is marked in countries across the world every October, to increase awareness and support for early detection and treatment.

Speaking on Starr FM, today October 22 2019 Dr Newman emphasized the need for breast cancer treatment to be decentralized 

''We need to decentralize Korle bu in the sense that it should not be the only place we can have chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It has to be different places even far across the outskirts of the country for mammogram centres and all that. So Korle Bu becomes part of those centres. You can have a woman having stage one of breast cancer and will be told to go and come severally for her to finally give up on going to the hospital. She comes back in 6 months time and cancer rises to a different level all together especially when the cancer is aggressive''.

She further indicated that: ''We health professionals should try to be nice and have patience for patients because every patient is a soul. You don't need to give them the best treatment by medicine and all that they need sometimes is just your kind words and care to come back again''.

In Ghana, breast cancer is a major public health problem and the most common type of cancer among women in terms of mortality and incidence.

Nearly 70% of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Ghana are in advanced stages of the disease due especially to low awareness, resulting in limited treatment success and high death rate.

According to breast cancer experts in Ghana, the incidence was increasing as data from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Cancer Register showed that breast cancer was the fourth most common cancer among women.

Recently, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) launched the Breast Cancer Awareness Month on the theme: “You can beat breast cancer; many have survived it”.

READ ALSO: Scientists Discover A New Potential Way To Stop Breast Cancer Spreading

This was to intensify awareness of the disease and also encourage more women to conduct regular self-examination of their breasts for the early detection and treatment of breast cancer.

READ ALSO: Women who wake up early have a lower risk of breast cancer - Study