Lifestyles contribute to breast cancer
A surgeon at the Breast Unit of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has identified delay in childbirth, poor eating habits and not breastfeeding babies as some of the lifestyles that have caused an upsurge in breast cancer cases in the country.
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She said the adoption of these lifestyles by some Ghanaians had the potential of exposing them to the disease.
Although the precise causes of breast cancer are often associated with a family history, Dr Florence Dedey said “it has more to do with lifestyles and as life expectancy is increasing, the adoption of these western lifestyle may also increase.”
“Having children late, not breastfeeding and obesity all increase the risk. The disease is more common as you age, especially between the ages of 40 and 49,” she said.
In an interview with The Mirror, she said 2,000 cases and 1,000 deaths were recorded globally every year and the figures were likely to increase in countries such as Ghana.
Even though she could not tell which region in Ghana was leading the chart on breast cancer cases, she explained that they were not able to track records because there were no radiotherapy centres in some of the regions as most patients travelled to Accra for treatment.
Breast cancer awareness
On the impact of the campaign against breast cancer, she maintained that though most Ghanaians were now aware of the disease, the lack of behavioural changes was derailing efforts by experts to effectively manage it.
For instance, she said, most patients who reported to the clinics were reluctant to go through the full treatment of removal of the infected breast which she also attributed to the cultural misconception that removal of the breast was an instant death sentence.
Besides, some patients also refused to report early at the centre for timely treatment.
Social media debate
A recent debate on social media credited the wearing of tight brassieres and the keeping of coins in brassieres as practices that could expose women to the disease, but Dr Dedey advised society to disabuse their minds of some of those misconceptions, saying, there was no scientific proof to back them.
She, therefore, stressed the need for people to seek early treatment as the chances of a cure were higher when the disease was diagnosed early.