KATHMANDU, AUG 28 -
Lack of awareness about breast cancer and expensive diagnosis service has led to an increase in the cases of malignant breast neoplasm in Nepal, cancer specialists say.

According to oncologists, out of 40,000 cases of cancer registered in Nepal every year, 10 percent are breast cancer. Among all types of cancer seen in the country, breast cancer comes fourth. The first three are lung cancer, cervical cancer and head and neck cancer.

A few hospitals like Teaching, Jana Maitri and Kathmandu Medical College have mammography service which is not affordable to many patients.  “Almost 80 percent of the cases are diagnosed at the late stage which cannot be cured,” said cancer specialist Dr. Bijesh Raj Ghimire. “Lack of data on breast cancer is making difficult to launch targeted programmes.”

Women in urban areas are mostly found to be prone to breast cancer due to late marriage, hesitancy about breast-feeding children and consumption of excessive fat, alcohol and cigarette. Some of the symptoms of breast cancer are dimpling of skin, change in texture and lumps or thickness in breast and armpit.

Unlike other cancer, breast cancer can be self-diagnosed and can be cured if diagnosed in early stage. “We can minimise up to 50 percent of breast cancer through proper self-examination,” Ghimire said.

Posted on: 2010-08-29 08:28

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.

* Full Name

* Address

* Email Address

* Comment
[Some of the HTML tags you can use : <b>, <i>, <a>]

* Captcha

Get another CAPTCHA code