Breast Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in women despite advances in diagnosis and treatment of Breast Cancer, for which reason October is celebrated as a National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
As people celebrated this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Danquah Institute Chatroom organized a symposium in Accra, themed “Surviving Breast Cancer through Awareness, Care and Management.”
Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Antoinette Tsiboe-Darko in her opening remarks underscored the need to create more platforms to draw the world’s attention to the seriousness of Breast Cancer and encourage people to show maximum support to the victims.
She reaffirmed the Institute’s commitment to continue public health awareness programs to support the national agenda.
The symposium brought together people from all walks of life with the majority of them being women. The dialogue session was moderated by Dr. Ernestina Dankyi (Lecturer, University of Ghana).
The panelists were Hon. Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, Medical Doctor and Board Member, NHIA, Dr. Florence Dedey, Lecturer UGMS, and Surgeon KBTH, Dr. Nelson Agboadoh, Specialist Surgeon, KBTH, and Mrs. Susan Malik, Founder, Maud Lokko Foundation and Breast Cancer survivor.
They dissected pertinent issues on Breast Cancer treatment, early signs, Government policy position as well as a survivor’s story.
They emphasized the need for early detection through screening to ensure a decline in Ghana’s Breast Cancer death rate.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has rated Breast Cancer as the second most common cancer disease in the world and the most common in women worldwide, accounting for 25% of all incident cases of female cancers.
In 2020, the WHO said there were 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer out of which 700,000 deaths were recorded.
