Pakistan has highest breast cancer rate in Asia

[Naveed Yaseen]

October is the ‘Pink Ribbon — Breast Cancer Awareness’ month worldwide. It will be marked in Pakistan as well with an extensive awareness campaign as the country has the highest rate of breast cancer for any Asian population.

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy in women, and accounts for 38.5% of all female cancers which is about 83,000 new cases every year. About half (43.7%) of all breast cancers are locally advanced accounting to 40,000 deaths per year. However very little information on breast cancer is available in Pakistan. Many people believe that breast cancer is a death sentence. Late detection and follow up for treatment has resulted in the high levels of mortality resulting from breast cancer but with early diagnosis and the appropriate treatment a patient’s chance of surviving is higher than 90%.

Therefore, creating widespread awareness is the principal goal of the Pink Ribbon Campaign and the mission is to become Centre of Excellence for Breast Care Information. ‘Friends of Pink Ribbon’ is the support group of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign Pakistan. The focus is to raise awareness about the dangerously high level of incidence of breast cancer in Pakistan; that the disease is curable and need not be fatal; the disease can be detected early, even by simple self diagnosis and that life after cancer is worth living.

The press of Pakistan and Pink Ribbon can work together to empower the Pakistani people by raising general awareness through regular articles, ranging from the human experience — testimonies of survivors and their families — to different medical articles describing procedures and how nutritional information and exercise can help reduce the risk of developing breast cancer; by giving people the information they really need for early detection as well as the route that treatment takes and the essential aspect of emotional support so as to survive cancer; by getting people to talk about breast cancer and removing the taboo linked to this illness and empower the population of Pakistan through knowledge on all aspects of the disease.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=138840