Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu , Senior Reporter
OCTOBER is recognised globally as Breast Cancer Awareness Month with emphasis on early detection for both men and women, despite women bearing the biggest brunt of the deadly disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) notes that breast cancer is the most common cancer globally with around 2,3 million new cases every year.
Zimbabwe on the other hand records about 2 000 cases of the disease annually with 50 percent of patients dying within the first year of diagnosis because they present late to health institutions.
“Health system barriers and patient-level factors with low levels of awareness and knowledge are contributing to low uptake of early detection services, with resultant late-stage diagnoses and poor outcomes.
“In many resource-constrained settings, breast cancer affects a relatively younger population, significantly contributing to premature mortality and maternal orphans,” highlighted WHO in their Breast Cancer Awareness Initiative.
Mr Munyaradzi Magara, a specialist breast cancer surgeon at United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) said the statistics are shocking with women encouraged to take breast cancer screening seriously.
He said the institution sees about 20 women a week with a majority being positive cases for the disease. However, women with breast conditions will benefit immensely from the breast cancer unit that will be constructed at UBH to assist the growing number of women who are being diagnosed with this cancer annually in the city and beyond.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women in Zimbabwe after cervical cancer. The unit, once constructed, will also cater to patients coming from Matabeleland North and South provinces.
In an interview, Dr William Busumani, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for UBH, said the unit is being donated by partners to the hospital at an opportune time when the province and country at large are being tormented by a breast cancer scourge.
“Breast cancer cases are on the rise in the country and it is number two after cervical cancer that is killing women. We do have cases of these cancers but not much has been done to address the problem. We now have a specialist breast cancer surgeon at UBH, Mr Munyaradzi Magara. The other one is in Harare. This is how this unit took off because we now have someone championing that field who is trained to deal with breast cancer,” said Dr Busumani.
The CMO said due to the huge response of women who attend a clinic that is currently being run by the hospital, some Government departments have also indicated that they want their female workers to be screened for breast cancer. “The awareness was after the First Lady, Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, visited the institution recently and has been championing the need for screening, encouraging women to come forward. Because of this demand that has been going on over time, there is a need for space for a new clinic and a specialised unit to be doing this work. Mr Magara brought his friends from the UK who have the same interest and they are the ones who have donated construction material of a breast cancer unit at UBH.
They were also impressed by the First Lady’s commitment and interest to issues around breast and cervical cancer,” he said.
Dr Busumani emphasised that the First Lady has taken her time to raise awareness of breast and cervical cancer and communities must respond to the call and get screened early.
He said the doctors from the UK have pledged to equip the breast cancer unit with the required resources such as scanning equipment, mammograms, and all other machines needed for the screening and treatment of patients.
“In modern breast clinics, there are daycare facilities where you come in the morning, you are treated and you go home later that day. So, we should be able to treat some patients easily; they walk in and out of the facility in one day because we will have all the equipment readily available.
“Traditionally as UBH, we take care of Matabeleland South Province, so we will treat women from there too but we are open to people coming from elsewhere for this specialised treatment, we cannot turn away people. We even have satellite points at Gwanda Provincial Hospital and Beitbridge District Hospital where we have nurses trained specifically for breast cancer screening,” he said.
Mr Magara, the breast cancer specialist said it is vital for community health workers to be conscientised and be on the lookout for women and men who may be affected by breast cancer.
“It is a useful thing to have a community that is aware of the condition and the starting point is people who are acceptable to the community itself.
They do not have to walk too far, they do not even need transport to visit the women so that they bring knowledge and understanding of the condition.
“They know how to examine women and teach them how to examine themselves for the presence of lumps. It would be great if we could have that kind of disseminated knowledge of the condition down to the community level. From there, people can then come to the clinic and up the referral chain but if it starts at the community level, that will be good,” said Mr Magara.
Dr Busumani said cancer treatment is very expensive when people present late. “The whole purpose of screening is to catch the disease before it is too late. Cancer requires early diagnosis and early treatment then you can minimise the costs. When one comes late, usually that patient will be very sick and requires extensive surgery, hospital stay and recovery, which is costly, so the whole purpose of early screening is to detect these things early and save money,” added Dr Busumani.
He said advanced breast cancer, which is costly to treat, would have spread to the chest, brain and many other parts making it more difficult to treat than when detected early.
Dr Busumani said they have been in consultation with the UK donors who will see to the construction of the specialised clinic.
Hospital authorities are awaiting the floor plan of the new unit to be availed before it is approved by the Department of Public Works who will be responsible for the construction.
UBH is currently running a clinic that is still in its infancy where they screen women for breast cancer, which was initiated following the influx of women who required the services.
The clinic, which opened in 2015, also offers cervical cancer screening, and observations were that women were coming very late to seek help at the institution’s general surgical clinic.
They would come in as emergencies with lumps they have had for three or four years and waited because the lumps were not painful yet the cancers would have spread to a large area of the breast, chest and even the head. – @NyembeziMu
Bongani Ndlovu