Women heeding advice to ‘act early’ with breast cancer screenings

Vincentian women are taking advantage of free breast cancer screening being done at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH), as part of the initiatives in the local breast cancer fight.

The month of October is recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Registrar at MCMH, Dr Mark Cumberbatch said although attendance at the clinic was low during the first few days, numbers increased in the final days.

“… as the word got out, by midday we were going up to about 16 patients. Yesterday [Wednesday] we had about 10 more … more and more people are coming.”

At the clinic, patients were interviewed by medical doctors and given a visual of breast changes using the ‘Know Your Lemons’ graphic which shows signs of breast cancer. This was followed by a physical examination, and Dr Cumberbatch revealed that a number of women have been given recommendations for follow-up care because of lumps found in their breasts.

“These lumps may not necessarily mean that they are cancerous … we do the relevant things to make the right decision. Patients who would have never had breast examinations or mammograms and we have positive findings so these efforts by the Ministry of Health really do show results.”

Dr Cumberbatch said doctors recognize the fear that surrounds a cancer diagnosis; however, he urged the public to keep in mind that the best outcomes happen with early detection.

“I think that we need to do more in terms of sensitizing the general public. Once they know they can utilize that information

and make the relevant decisions. There is an element of fear for cancer, and

most people would think, ‘cancer, don’t want to deal with it’ but paralysing fear is pathologic. The best thing to do is face it head on, make the relevant decisions… early diagnosis saves lives.”

He added, that the resources are there in both the public and private health care systems to assist persons with screening and testing.

“Act early. Don’t be afraid if you find a problem. The facilities are there, the DMO’s are there, utilize them.

Government has made it very accessible, people just have to utilize the available facilities. I am not saying that it is cheap in any way.”

Dr Cumberbatch explained that cancers in the late stages are a significant financial burden to treat, even with the government subsidizing the cost of treatments.

“We don’t have radiation therapy available here. For the more advanced cancers that may be the option like for Stage four- $100,000 US dollars is what we are starting with. Even with the chemotherapy, for one cycle is $3,000 EC dollars.”

The free breast screening clinic at the MCMH comes to a close today, Friday October 11.

At 3:30 p.m, stakeholders in the health sector, school children and members of the public will be staging the Pink Cap City Walk in Kingstown starting at upper Bay Street. This will be followed by a rally at Heritage Square.