50% of women diagnosed with breast cancer die annually

The Breast Society of Ghana has said that 50% of the over 4,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer die every year.

This was made known at the society’s 4th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Accra on Friday on the theme “Improving Breast Diseases Outcomes, the Role of the Breast Society.”

The Acting Programme Manager of the Non-Communicable Disease Control Programme of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Efua Commeh, has therefore called for intensive public awareness campaigns to demystify the myths surrounding breast cancer and help save more lives.

She highlighted that early detection of breast cancer goes a long way to avert the complications of the disease and prevent death.

“Unfortunately, we lose a lot of women because they come in stage three and four. This is not acceptable anywhere. If cases were coming in stage one, for instance, treatment is better and the patients themselves will be better. They don’t need to go through expensive chemotherapy and other treatments, which can be very worrying for the patient. All these treatments come with side effects as well.”

She added, “So we keep preaching that early detection saves lives. That is what it means. When we pick you up early enough, we will be able to treat you so that you can continue living your normal life, and we don’t continue having the high deaths from cancers that we have.”