Ignorance makes breast cancer leading killer of Indian women
Breast cancer rates very high among the cancers than claim Indian women due to taboos, guilt or plain ignorance.
India's health delivery system is still not sensitive towards the socio-cultural aspects of diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer patients, says Dr Tarang Patel of the Ahmedabad-based Yash Oncosurgical Institute. Dr Patel was speaking at Break the Silence -- Stop the Epidemic Opening the Doors to Dialogue Around the World, the first world conference on breast cancer at Kingston, Canada. It is being jointly organised by the Kingston Breast Cancer Conference Committee and the New York-based Women's Environment and Development Organisation.
Dr Patel said a woman-centred health educational module was required to integrate breast exams and cancer diagnosis along with basic information about the disease.
He said there were misconceptions that breast cancer was more prevalent in women with large breasts, those wearing tight-fitting or synthetic bras, using strong soap, who smoke, drink, have more children, breast-feed for very long or who do not take contraceptive pills.
Another widely prevalent belief, he said, was that a woman got cancer because she had sinned. ''I have observed that such a belief has demoralised the patient to such an extent that she loses interest in life,'' he said, stating this was why women, fearing some kind of ostracism, avoided speaking about a lump in the breast, resulting in delayed diagnosis.
Dr Patel said he conducted a survey among 100 women in Ahmedabad and found that very few of them regularly checked their breasts. Seventy-five of them did not examine their breasts, 80 did not know about breast examinations and 20 did not realise the importance of the examination. In this context speakers emphasised the need for encouraging breast self-examinations and for improved breast health awareness.
Dr Iris Zavala Martinez of Puerto Rico pointed out that self-examination was not always possible, particularly in the developing world where lack of privacy and space and the shyness of the women themselves were inhibiting factors.
Dr Martinez, herself a breast cancer survivor and a member of a woman's health collective in San Juan, Puerto Rico, expressed concern about cultural and gender barriers in the provision of proper health care for women, referring to the similarities between Puerto Rico and India with regard to social taboos and access to information.
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