By Christiana Afua Nyarko
Accra, October 24, 2022, GNA – Five years ago, Kwame, an accountant, discovered a pimple under his left nipple. Pressing it, he realized that there was no pain at all. He shrugged, rubbed a bit of ointment he had purchased from the chemist in his neighborhood on it, thinking it will soon vanish, but he was mistaken.
The pimple never went away. It started growing. Kwame was eventually told he had to do a biopsy when he went to see a doctor at the Komfo-Anokye Teaching Hospital. That was when the news hit him. He was told he had developed breast cancer, and it was spreading rapidly. He needed urgent treatment to avoid any further spread of this invasive condition.
Shocked, it took him a few days to digest what he was told. Then, he however gathered the courage to undergo the treatment.
Kwame who was in his mid-forties and divorced said he felt too shy to tell his family and friends about his condition until the treatment began to drain his savings.
Treatment challenges
Kwame’s journey to recovery was hard for him. He underwent surgery, radiation treatment and chemotherapy. “It was a hard time for my family and me. The treatment lasted for 10 months. “It was harder than the cancer itself. Sometimes I felt like giving up,” he recounted.
Today, Kwame is cured and encourages both women and men to constantly examine their breasts (and having a mammogram) and seek medical help when they noticed unusual lumps or growth in and around them.
Now he has joined the thousands of cancer advocates to educate people about the disease and the need to seek early treatment that save lives.
“Today I can proudly say that I am a breast cancer survivor because I sought the appropriate medical attention”.
Others need to know about this as it will help disabuse the superstitions that prevent proper treatment, worsening the plight of many”.
The above story paints a rare picture of one of the commonest cancers in the world: breast cancer – an abnormal multiplication of cells in the breast and lymphatic system in the armpit, affecting millions around the globe.
According to The World Health Organisation facts and statistics on the disease, 685,000 out of 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020 died.
Also, data from the Ghana Branch of Breast Care International, an NGO that campaigns and offer support to patients, suggest that 4600 Ghanaians are diagnosed with Breast Cancer annually, of which 2000 are killed by it.
Some of such deaths among females are indeed avoidable if patients reported cases and got onto treatment early.
Factors that contribute to cancer mortalities include sufferers trying out faith/spiritual solutions, and drinking herbal concoctions prepared by either herbalists or faith healers, smearing balms on the affected parts of the breast among other unscientific methods which rather, in many cases, worsen the patients’ condition.
Although men are also at risk of developing breast cancer, education campaigns, advertisements and support have been targeted more often at women.
Considering the physiology of men, some are tempted to think that the incidence of disease may not be as much in men as it is in women, but the following statistics reveal that breast cancer in men, though still on the lower percentage, is gradually on the rise in Ghana.
First of all, the population of men in Ghana according to the 2021 National Population census, is more than 15 million. According to the breast cancer data of the UN, 1 in every hundred men will develop breast cancer in his life time. It may be inferred from the data above that about 150,000 men would develop breast cancer each year.
According to Breast Care International about 2.4 percent of all breast cancer cases occurs in males, a proportion much greater than the over one percent quoted by the World Health Organisation and between one to two percent of the 2012 statistics in Ghana.
The statistics was further corroborated in 2020 by the Ashanti Regional Directorate of Ghana Health Service. Out of every 40 to 50 persons in the region, two to three men suffered from the condition, and is on the rise.
Yet, the situation of breast cancer among men and how it affects them have for long, been seldom discussed. Discussions in the mass media on ‘pink and blue-ribbon month’ of October, are presided over by women mostly—resource persons, medical personnel and even survivors.
Ameade & Amalba et al (2014) in their study “Reducing the Breast Cancer Menace, the role of the Male Partner in Ghana” support this observation with the argument that: “only women have been targeted with the campaign against breast cancer.
As much as women are targeted with anti-breast cancer education, messages, precautionary measures and financing of treatments, men must also be accorded same.
Men, though generally have a low prevalence rate, should not be left off the hook. As much as we encourage women to seek appropriate treatments and disabuse their minds from superstitions surrounding it, we must encourage them with same.
Men must be educate, particularly survivors to swallow their ego, brave their shyness, just as Kwame did, and come out in their numbers to join hands with female counterparts to sensitise the masses about this disease that is affecting men.
As much as women are encouraged to avoid certain lifestyles, that can trigger the disease, such as smoking, excessive alcohol intake, lack of exercise among others, men also need to be encouraged to avoid same.
Men must be made aware that if their family genetics are exposing the women in their families to breast cancer then, they are also not safe either, hence need to be on the side of caution.
Again, just as women are encouraged to conduct voluntary breast examination and testing regularly, men needed to be also encouraged to test too.
It is high time, that men get seriously involved as far as breast cancer is concerned. It is not only about the women. Men matter too.
GNA