Intensify efforts to create awareness about cancers

The Programme Manager of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) of Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr William Bosu, has called for intensive efforts to create  awareness about cancers, which he said had assumed a relatively higher burden in the country compared to the past.
He said globally, cancer killed lot of people more than many diseases pooled together and pointed out that although 40 per cent of cancers were curable, one third could be prevented, and another one third managed, early detection, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancers and new cases had remained a huge challenge.
Dr Bosu made the call at  a seminar held in recently on the theme: “Together We Can Overcome Cancer”, to commemorate World Cancer Day.
The programme was also held to create more awareness on the disease, as well as  on the various types of cancers and how to alleviate problems associated with the disease.
The seminar was organised by the Cancer Society of Ghana, in collaboration with the United Nations Information Centre in Accra, the Ghana Health Service and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to Dr Bosu, 60 per cent of deaths in Africa were caused by non-communicable diseases, of which cancers formed part and pointed out that about 16,000 new cases of cancers are recorded every year in the country.
He said there was the need for intensive awareness-creation campaign on the disease, while doctors and health specialists also perform their respective roles in treating patients.
The Head of the Surgery Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Prof. Joe Nat Clegg-Lamptey, said about 2000 women in Ghana are diagnosed with breast cancers annually, out of which a number of deaths are recorded.
He said last year, 250 new cases of breast cancer were recorded at the surgical Out Patient Department (OPD) of the Korle Bu Teaching hospital (KBTH), with most people who had it aged between 40 and 49, adding that only two per cent of men in Ghana acquire breast cancer, which signifies that women are mostly at risk of the disease.
 Prof. Clegg-Lamptey stated that unlike previous years when breast cancer used to be diagnosed among women between the ages of 40 to 49, currently, young women between the ages of 20 and to 24 were being diagnosed with the disease, describing the situation as very alarming.
He said most patients reported with the disease at an advanced stage, adding that the fear of mastectomy (surgical operation to remove the breast) had also hindered people from reporting to hospitals on time for treatment.
In her lecture on cervical cancer, Dr Sylvia Deganus, a Gynaecologist at the Tema General Hospital announced that from the year 2003 to 2011, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) alone recorded 1290 out of 4497 cervical cancer cases in the country and advised women to go for regular screening for early detection of the disease.
“Symptoms of  cervical cancer do not show at its initial stages, but only show when the disease has started and spread all over the cervix which cannot be seen due to its location on the part of the body”, she said.
A paediatrician of the KBTH, Dr Alexandra Osafo said as of January 31, this year, 18 new cases of childhood cancers have been recorded at the KBTH and advised parents not to be their own doctors by detecting diseases for their children at home, but rather take them to the hospital for early detection and treatment.
A Public Health Specialist at the KBTH, Dr Benedict N.L Calys-Tagoe spoke about the importance of a cancer registry in the country and explained that the lack of such facility, which is needed to generate hypothesis of aetiology, geographic and temporal variation of cancers in the country, had affected data collection on cancers.