With October being Cancer Awareness Month, spokesperson for the cause, Senator Michelle Pindling-Sands, on Monday highlighted the importance of Bahamian women over the age of 40 having regular mammograms.
Speaking as a guest on Love 97 radio programme “Issues of the Day”, Mrs. Pindling-Sands said she became aware that she had breast cancer after she went for her annual checkup last October.
She said she was shocked when her physician recommended that she have a biopsy to detect if she had cancer.
Mrs. Pindling-Sands said upon hearing the news that she had breast cancer, her first thoughts were how her children would cope with her having the disease.
So far, she has completed all of her treatment, with a final radiation treatment last month.
Her oncologist, Dr. Tracey Roberts, who was also a guest on the show, said the senatorﾒs prognosis is very good.
Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that develops from cells of the breast. A malignant tumor is a group of cancer cells that may invade surrounding tissues or spread to distant areas of the body. The disease occurs almost entirely in women, but men can get it too.
Dr. Roberts said more women in The Bahamas in recent time have been coming forward to check to see if they have the disease, but she said there are still some who are reluctant to come forward.
“The major problem we are seeing is unfortunately in our community there is still a stigma attached to cancer in general and breast cancer specifically,” Dr. Roberts said.
She said while some women might be aware that they have breast cancer there is a significant amount of denial, which results in the cancer cells escalating without treatment.
“When they find the lump they sit and wait, which is not the best thing to do. They need to be proactive because there are certain risk factors that you must be aware of,” Dr. Roberts said.
Women under 40 with relatives who have or had breast cancer under the age of 40 are more likely to have breast cancer, Dr. Roberts said.
“We are seeing 19 and 20 [year olds] with breast cancer. So clearly in those cases we think there is a hereditary component,” Dr. Roberts said.
Some Bahamian oncologists in The Bahamas are currently involved in a study into breast cancer.
Based on their preliminary findings, the researchers have said that because inherited genetic predisposition may be a common cause of breast cancer in native African women and because Bahamian women share many genetic features with native African women, the high incidence of advanced disease in young women may point to a genetic etiology for breast cancer in the Bahamas.
“What we believe has been going on in The Bahamas and making our breast cancer so aggressive is the fact that there may be another mutation of that gene that is causing it to be aggressive,” Dr. Roberts said.
A tumor registry has been set at PMH to collect data on recent breast cancer victims. However, Dr. Roberts said there is a need for a national registry to be set up.
“We are in urgent need of a national tumor registry that collects all of the cases of cancer in this country. It should be similar to what we have with HIV because itﾒs a criminal offense not to report an HIV case,” Dr. Roberts said.
According to Dr. Roberts, about two thirds of cancer cases go unreported due to patients being seen by private doctors, but their cases are not always reported.
Bianca Symonette, The Bahama Journal
