From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer in March of 2011, there was a deafening silence from the men I knew. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The following entry first appeared in December of 2016.
In the 1980s, I traveled with an organization to West Africa. I spent three months in Cameroon, so I still follow news about the country. Recently it seemed a natural extension of my reading about Breast Cancer to check the stats regarding the disease in that country.
I found this: “Overall survival rates of breast cancer are 30% at 5 years and 13.2% at 10 years among Cameroonian patients and are lower compared with 90% and 82% respectively at 5 years and 10 years in some developed countries.”OMG! This is truly horrifying. Where we – justifiably – celebrate the survival of American breast cancer victims, the mortality rate of the women in Cameroon is THREE TIMES ours.
What’s being done? How can we help?
The vast majority of deaths from malignancies occur in sub-Saharan Africa primarily as a result of lack of public awareness of cancer and how it is diagnosed and treated in the setting of a severe lack of resources (physical and personnel) to actually diagnose tumors. To correct this massive health disparity, a plan of action is required across the continent of Africa to bring diagnostic medicine into the modern era and connect patients with the care they desperately need.” (Emphasis mine)
Why should this matter to you? Why should the matter to me?
I COULD wallow in guilt. That would be both easy and satisfying! Instead, I’ve decided I’m going to take a character I’ve created in a science fiction short story, and send him on a few adventures. Most likely, he’ll be travelling with a hard-thinking woman who will become his perfect match. They’ve already started out rebuilding the educational infrastructure of Liberia in the future middle of this century. I’m thinking the two of them need to make a trip to Cameroon. Separately – where they’ll meet and butt heads.
The driving issue will be breast cancer education, diagnosis, and treatment in these three West African countries that hold a special place in my heart. From the sale of the stories, I’ll donate the money to breast cancer research in those places…
As for current work going on there, there does seem to be movement and as you’d expect, it’s in the area of EDUCATION AND AWARENESS. “A recent review using the most recent data available for the entire continent showed that breast cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in 2008. There were an estimated 92,600 cases…breast cancer recently overtook cervical cancer as the most commonly diagnosed cancer in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Niger, Namibia, Congo, Kenya, and Somalia. This change was attributed to increases in the prevalence of breast cancer risk factors associated with urbanization and economic development, such as earlier menarche, later childbearing, having fewer children, obesity, and increased awareness and detection.”
As well, “Worldwide, breast cancer mostly occurs after the age of 50 years. The situation is different in our context where it occurs at a relatively younger age, 46 years. The majority of these cases in our setting are diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease because of difficulties in access to health care among other factors, underscoring the importance of early diagnosis through screening. According to the WHO, breast cancer is responsible for 25% of cancer deaths in the world with the majority of these deaths occurring in the developing countries. Although incidence of breast cancer is lowest in African countries, survival rates are also lowest. The majority of breast cancer deaths, 69%, occur in developing countries.”
A ray of hope? Run for a Cure, Africa has this as its mission: “To Win the fight against breast cancer in Africa by erasing societal stigmas; providing affordable breast cancer screenings, and creating more access to quality breast care. Their vision is to “…turn the current 90% breast cancer mortality rate in Africa into the 99% survival rate.”
So…the fight goes on in places most of us have never heard of. Hallelujah!
Resource: http://file.scirp.org/pdf/ABCR_2015033017061944.pdf, http://allafrica.com/stories/201607181336.html, http://file.scirp.org/pdf/OJOG_2016110715230808.pdf, http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9921334c92e792139971fa508&id=22224a0179&e=7c62834bc7
Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5527/10893068965_1d328e8f71_b.jpg
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