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Breast cancer awareness should not be a seasonal affair – Doctor warns
– encourages women to take advantage of free screening at GPHC
Paying keen attention to breast cancer should not be a seasonal affair. Rather deliberate efforts should be made to keep it on the front burner all year long.
Dr. Zoilo Placeres Leon
This is the assertion of Dr. Zoilo Placeres Leon who has been lending crucial cancer treatment care at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC].
Breast cancer is said to develop from breast tissue. Some early signs of its presence could include a lump in the breast, a change in its shape, dimpling of the skin around it, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple or a red or scaly patch of skin.
Dr. Leon made it clear during a recent interview that given the increasing number of women who are being diagnosed with breast cancer, there is need for awareness about the disease to be amplified continually.
October is designated Breast Cancer Awareness month but keeping the focus on the disease during this month alone simply will not suffice, Dr. Leon insisted.
Although Dr. Leon is a Thoracic and General Surgeon, which is a crucial service being offered at the GPHC, his sub-specialty is cancer, an area that needs much attention here in Guyana.
Dr. Leon who moved to Guyana from Cuba about four years ago is advocating for more to be done to fight cancer. In fact, he said that the GPHC has been taking the lead in this regard offering free screening to women.
“GPHC has been doing this a long time but some people just don’t know…I think it is important that more people know about this,” he said.
Screening services such as mammogram is offered to women at the GPHC and this has been ongoing for the past seven month, Dr. Leon said. The process, he assured, is not intrusive or painful but is required to gain different views of the breasts.
“Women can be referred to the GPHC from the health centres [in their community] and they can get the free mammogram. It is a procedure that is very simple but could be very expensive if you go to the private sector.
“What we do is the regular follow-up of all breast pathologies, so all the women who have a lump in the breast could be sent to us and we will do the screening and tests to do early diagnosis as [soon as] possible,” Dr. Leon shared.
The hospital also offers ultrasound and biopsy as part of its screening programme.
Although he is able to treat other cancers including stomach, thyroid and lung cancers, Dr. Leon disclosed that, “cancer of the breast is the second most common cancer in Guyana [that affects women].”
The most prevalent cancer affecting women in Guyana, he said, is cervical cancer. Although breast cancer comes second to that of the cervix, Dr. Leon explained that it is more troubling since it accounts for a higher mortality rate among women.
While persons with risk factors for breast cancer should try to be screened early, Dr. Leon said that generally, all women should be screened by the age of 50 at least every two years.
Unavoidable risk factors for breast cancer include but are not limited to family history, your own medical history, and age. Avoidable risk factors could range from sedentary lifestyle to hormonal changes.
But men are not immune from breast cancer. According to Dr. Leon, although this disease is rather rare in men, they could be vulnerable as well. He noted, that it is important for persons to seek regular medical check-ups especially if they have family members with a history of the disease.
He, however, noted that it is important for men to safeguard themselves since “when breast cancer is found in men, the mortality can be even higher than in women. The risk factors are similar if you have a family member with the disease or if you are obese you have an increased risk factor for breast cancer…if you have more female hormones than masculine hormones your risk will increase,” Dr. Leon added.
While it is not financially feasible to spearhead a breast cancer screening programme dedicated to men, Dr. Leon said that men should not take breast cancer awareness and by extension their health, lightly.
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