Breast cancer awareness month: Curbing the disease

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By Hadiza Abdulrahman 

The month of October has been dubbed “Pink Month” as part of a global campaign to increase awareness of breast cancer.

The Pink Month is a time when initiatives are made to inform those who are worried about the disease, including early detection, signs and symptoms of breast cancer.

What is Breast Cancer ?

A medical practitioner Dr Summaiya Al-Mansur with the National AIDS/STI Control Programme of the Federal Ministry of Health said cancer is a disease that originates from the breast tissue. ”It begins when the cells in the breast starts to grow uncontrollably forming a lump or what we call tumours”.

Dr Summaiya noted that these tumours might not be cancerous and spread or malignant meaning they are cancerous and could potentially invade other near by tissues or spread to other parts of the body.

”Against the believe that only women can have breast cancer isn’t true according to the medical doctor”. She said men also have breast thus, some are prone to the disease but low when compared to women.

WHO opined that the Female gender is the strongest breast cancer risk factor, with approximately 0.5–1% of breast cancers occurring in men and the same treatment of breast cancer in men follows the same principles of management as for women.

The scope of breast cancer

The health body says breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer, estimating that In 2020, 2.3 million women were diagnosed of the disease and 685 000 deaths occurred globally. While at the end of 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 5 years.

Further buttressing that breast cancer mortality changed little from the 1930s through to the 1970s when surgery alone was the primary mode of treatment (radical mastectomy). Improvements in survival began in the 1990s when countries established breast cancer early detection programmes that were linked to comprehensive treatment programs including effective medical therapies.

The Director of global health catalyst, professor of radiation oncology of Johns Hopkins University, Wil Ngwa stated that more than 28,000 children died of cancer in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020, with projected increase by 30% increase in 2030.

Who is at risk? Dr Summaiya Al-Mansur said In every nation in the world, people can develop breast cancer and it is very important to understand the key aspect of this disease for early prevention, detection and treatment.

She highlighted some of the risks factors by categorising them into modifiable and non-modifiable. The medical practitioner listed the modifiable risks to include harmful alcohol consumption, smoking and unhealthy diet which she said can be avoidable .While the non-modifiable factors are associated with increasing age, genetic, obesity and puberty.

Prevention and Treatment, the Medical doctor noted that early detection is a cornerstone to arrest breast cancer. She encouraged regular self screening for menstruating women, annual Mammogram and clinical examination for women from age 40.

Dr Summaiya however, said for women whose family have a history of breast cancer, screening should start early.

She added that adopting a healthy lifestyle, seeking guidance from health practitioners would also go a long way in breast cancer prevention and early intervention

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