‘Not too young’

While younger women do not usually think about getting breast cancer, a local medical expert is reminding women in this country that such a diagnosis can happen at any age.

Medical Co-ordinator of the Breast Screening Programme of the Barbados Cancer Society, Dr. Shirley Hanoman-Jhagroo, says even though the majority of cases of breast cancer in Barbados are found in women between the ages of 50 and 65, more women under the age of 50 are being diagnosed with the disease, which is the most common cause of death from cancer among Barbadian women.

“It is always considered a post-menopausal disease, but it is not necessarily. We are finding women in their 40s and 30s and we have had a few in their 20s; we’ve even had an 18-year-old a few years ago,” she said in an interview with The Barbados Advocate after a service yesterday morning at the St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, to commemorate the Breast Screening Programme’s 15th anniversary.

This reality that breast cancer does not discriminate, has prompted the Breast Screening Programme to seek to target female students enrolled in secondary schools, in order to teach them how to perform breast self-examinations. She said that by teaching them the importance of doing self-examinations as teenagers, they are hoping that they will take this knowledge into adulthood, which would go a long way in ensuring early diagnosis of breast cancer. According to Hanoman-Jhagroo, they are waiting on approval from the Ministry of Health to move forward with the initiative.

“The breast self-examination is very important. You know why? The majority of breasts’ changes are found by the women themselves – five to eight per cent and some of those are found by the partners. But if you examine your breasts diligently, you will know when something feels different. So we are trying to emphasise this and we teach this. We have the mobile unit which goes around the island teaching women breast self-examination,” she said.

The Medical Co-ordinator’s remarks came as she noted that breast self-examination is the first aspect of the three protocols for early detection of breast cancer. The second, she said, is the mammogram screening, which usually starts at age 40; and the third is having an annual check performed by a health professional. (JRT)