Daily Times

PESHAWAR: A 30-year old Shazia hailing from Kurram Agency stands at the gates of Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (Irnum) Hospital Peshawar with her husband while weeping that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Some three years ago there was swelling in my right breast and the doctor advised me to operate it as soon as possible as there was tumor but I did not follow the doctor’s advice”, Shazia added.

She added that when she returned to her village some people advised to treat it with home based treatment, adding that her swelling was increasing day by day and when she came to the Irnum hospital the doctor’s had left with no choice but to operate her.

She said that she spend all of her savings on her treatment but now the doctors once again told her that her left breast was also infected and they will also operate it. “A small negligence in treatment I pay heavy cost”, she maintained.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Shazia was also one of the nine women in Pakistan who has breast cancer while around 1.4 million people were infected from Cancer while every year around 80,000 people were died because of Cancer disease in the country.

WHO report further said that around 40,000 women were facing cancer disease in Pakistan while every year around 90,000 women were infected from Cancer in which most of the patients were breast cancer. Dr Nabeela Javeed Oncologist at Irnum Hospital Peshawar while talking to Daily Times said that in 2015 they were registered total 728 patients of breast cancer from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federal Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as well as patients from Afghanistan.

She added that from FATA they received 61 patients of breast cancer in 2015 as well as around 225 patients were visit to Peshawar from Afghanistan.

She informed this scribe that in Peshawar district breast cancer was on the top of the list with 119 patients, Mardan 60, Nowshera 51, Lower Dir 16, Swabi 44, Haripur 7 and Hangue 7. She said that October was observed as breast cancer month across the Globe to create awareness among people about the treatment and precautionary measures. She added that most of the people didn’t know about breast cancer especially in tribal and remote areas of Pakistan where literacy ratio is low. In 100 patients 20 per cent cancer were diagnosed because of breast tumor and women should not worry about it.

She informed that in our society it was considered immoral for women to go to the hospital for screenings and checkup or discuss the cancer even within their family. Most of the patients come to hospital when the diseases are at advance stages. Initially patients ignore growing tumor in their breast. “Many patients first go to a traditional healer and by the time they visit a reputable doctor, the disease becomes untreatable,” she said, adding that those women who were not married, late marriage, after marriage no pregnancy, fatness and weakness among women can cause breast cancer.

Professor Abid Jameel focal person for oncology department Hayatabad Medical Complex while talking to Daily Times said that around 1500 patients of blood cancer has so for treated in HMC Peshawar across KP and Fata including Afghans patients.

He further said that awareness and prevention of blood cancer was started in 2011-12 and was completed successfully with the assistance of Novartis, adding that the survival rate of patients was 90 per cent. He said that in the first phase around 800 patients of blood cancer were treated and provincial government shared Rs 578.340 million for 810 patients for three years.

He said that the second phase from 2014-15 was also completed successfully, adding that the project life is 2018-19 and in the third phase the project will be extended to other patients of cancer including breast cancer as PC-1 has already approve.

Shazia is still weeping that if she had treated on time she will have not faced such financial as well as health problems and giving her message to all women that if you feel swelling continuously in your breast you will reach to the near doctor for treatment.