THE need for more cancer awareness and advocacy programmes was underscored when the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) hosted a symposium as its first event to kick off the company’s Pinktober 2019 calendar of activities.

The event, which was held at the Roraima’ Duke Lodge on Duke Street, Kingston, provided a platform for survivors, caregivers, patients and healthcare professionals to speak of the challenges and other areas of cancer-care management in Guyana.

Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence, in a video message, and PAHO Representative Dr. Wiliam Adu-Krow, both gave emotional personal experiences of having been diagnosed with the disease and how they were able to cope with it.

Dr. Adu-Krow called for much more to be done if this country is to make significant inroads in tackling the scourge. Using statistics to press home the point that cancer spares no one, Dr. Adu-Krow said that the major issue with the disease is the survival rate, with that for breast cancer worldwide ranging from 80 per cent in North America and the developed world, to 60 per cent in middle-income countries, and as low as below 40 per cent in developing countries.

According to him, breast cancer globally takes the lives of about half-a-million people yearly, with about 50 per cent of those deaths occurring in developing countries. Noting that PAHO takes care of about 58 per cent of persons with breast cancer in the developing world, Dr. Adu-Krow said that another baffling thing about breast cancer is that globally, almost one out of every four persons that is identified with the malady dies. A case in point, he said, is that of the 462 000 persons identified with breast cancer in 2011, some 100,000, the equivalent of 25 per cent, have died.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, meanwhile, it has been found that a great proportion of breast cancer deaths occur in women under 65, as opposed to the developed countries where it’s women over 65.

CLOSER TO HOME

Turning his attention closer to home, Dr. Adu-Krow said that here in Guyana, breast cancer has been found to rank as the Number One form of cancer overall, particularly between 2003 and 2012.

Noting that survival-wise, about 80 per cent of breast cancer victims in the United States can survive, whereas in Guyana it is only 30 per cent, Dr. Adu-Krow, who couldn’t help but wonder why this is so, seized the opportunity at this point to call for more work to be done on the subject, if we are to ever get to the bottom of it.
Noting that in the less developed countries, it has been narrowed down to the lack of early detection programmes, compounded by the fact that a high proportion of women present themselves during the late stage of the disease, and the lack of adequate facilities to enable an early detection of the disease, Dr. Adu-Krow harked back to a statement made earlier into the programme by Minister Lawrence, where she spoke of plans to acquire more mammogram equipment, Dr. Adu-Krow suggested that a good place to start would be to have mammogram tests done in each of the major hospitals in the regions.

The forum also featured brief remarks from GTT’s Chief Executive Officer Justin Nedd, along with presentations by Dr. Sayan Chakraborty of the Cancer Institute of Guyana; Dr. Dazzle of the Oncology Unit of the GHPC; Ms. Latoya Gooding of Giving Hope Foundation; Ms. Marion Williams , Secretary of the Periwinkle Cancer; Mr Patrick De grookof Beacon Foundation; Mr Dwayne Butters of Courtney Butters Prostate Cancer Awareness Network and a representative from GUYOIL.

A brief session of physical activity involving the participants and conducted by Diana Gittens of Rythms of Movement, lent added fillip to the forum, which also included group discussions and the presentation of an award to Cancer Warrior, Ms Fiona Legall.