Breast cancer patients, caretakers and other individuals from the community have been called on to reinforce efforts in combating the disease.

A group of doctors, surgeons, nurses, radiologists and experts from the Ministry of Health, meeting at a national symposium on the management of breast cancer in Kigali, on Wednesday, said with several breast cancer control measures already in place in hospitals, the growing concern is that these alone cannot be sufficient to address the fight against the disease, especially in women.

Because of the absence of this pyramid of practices to mitigate the gaps, more efforts are required in the health sector.

Dr Agnes Binagwaho, the minister for health, said: "We have a long way to go as far as cancer awareness is concerned within the country. Both the public and health care professionals need to be continuously sensitised.”

And this would eventually have to be accompanied with capacity building, through training health care professionals.

"Doctors, laboratory technicians, nurses need to be facilitated through training as another way to fight breast cancer,” Dr Binagwaho added.

However, the minister expressed concern over how the public has responded to the few measures already in place.

"About four years ago, the health system provided cancer screening opportunities for all, but the results indicate that only very few people have had checkups or utilised these services,” Dr Binagwaho said.

However, there are also patients who could be failing to seek medical attention after diagnosis and this can be explained by the number of those seeking treatment from the health facilities.

Dr Faustin Ntirenganya, a surgeon at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (Chuk), said he operated on at least five patients last month with breast cancer.

Breast cancer still remains the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women that causes severe implications on both the patients and the care takers.

Recent statistics from the World Health Organisation on cancers indicate that breast cancer results into 23 per cent of new cases in women while 14 per cent of the cancer patients succumb to the deadly disease annually.

This would account for 15 million cases annually and over 450,000 deaths per year.

Challenges

Dr Aimee Muhimpundu, the head of non-communicable diseases at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, said there are few cancer specialists in the country that train general practitioners and nurses on cancer management.

"On top of promoting early detection, communities need to be availed with trained personnel and given capacity for treatment,” Dr Muhimpundu advised.

Breast cancer, he added, needs a combined approach that involves all stake holders, including palliative care health workers.

Because breast cancer treatment involves a series of procedures, mammograms (machines used for early radiological detection of lumps and clusters in breasts) are still keeping the numbers high and currently only two are available at Chuk and King Faisal Hospital, Rwanda.

Since early detection is key in the fight against cancers, these machines are very few to serve all patients smoothly.

But even then, breast cancer affects individuals between 18 and 40 years, more than 65 per cent of these have dense breasts that inhibit detection using digital methods such as mammography.

For this reason, other improved methods are also essential to reveal breast cancer presence.

Strategies to combat breast cancer

Dr Aimee Muhimpundu, the head of non-communicable diseases at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, said so far 118 doctors, 157 nurses, four clinicians have been trained to improve the handling of cancer infections. These are from different districts within the country.

Evely Kamagaju, a breast cancer survivor, said giving hope of recovery is one of the strongest points in increasing confidence about the success of medication and treatments, especially for beginners.

"We have intensified measures of reaching out to both patients and care takers from the communities to facilitate information dissemination towards the local people,” Kamagaju said.