Breast Cancer: Let us take action! Christopher Murray, Angelica Baker JAMSA-Jamaica
A diagnosis of breast cancer is often directly linked to a woman’s family medical history, lifestyle choices, or her environment. She has no control over your family’s medical history, and only some aspects of her environment can be modified. Lifestyle choices like diet, weight, exercise, and smoking are hers to manage. Jamaican Medical Students Association’s Standing Committee on Public Health (JAMSASCOPH) organized and hosted a Breast Cancer Workshop for the members. The aim of the workshop was to spread awareness of breast cancer throughout the University of the West Indies (UWI) community starting with the future medical practitioners and to empower women and men with the knowledge necessary to protect themselves against the disease and to educate themselves and others. By informing our members, we took the first step in reaching out to many individuals and homes who we hope will get the message of taking action against breast cancer. Evidence based medicine has taken somewhat of an imperative role in the practice of medicine today and with that in mind, Christopher Murray, our Cancer Awareness Director, delved into his latest findings of breast cancer research. He shared with us that researchers from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health found that a diet high in fiber while young may reduce breast cancer risk. They determined that women who ate lots of fruits and vegetables when young had a “significantly lower risk” resulting in a 12%-19% chance of developing breast cancer. He also discussed promising new drugs that have been shown to greatly increase the chances of complete tumor removal. Dr. Sheray Ward-Chin,Consultant Medical Oncologist, The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) started with a discussion about the prevalence of 70
cancer and the importance of early detection. This is one of the major issues we face in our population as women tend to present very late, most times with advanced stages of cancers as a result of not having annual screening done in the form a mammogram. These are the areas we want to impact by encouraging persons to become health literate and to develop better health seeking behaviours. If persons know more about the disease, the risk factors, symptoms and signs as well as the possible outcomes, then they will be able to make educated decisions concerning their health. Dr. Ward-Chin stressed the importance of regular screening and dispelled the myth that breast cancer is only a woman’s disease. Yes! Men can develop breast cancer as well. Those who attended expressed that they left more informed, more empowered, and more aware and as public health ambassadors to share the information with the target groups who very well includes them as well. References: 1-Hook. D. Top 5 Cancers Affecting Women, Retrieved from http:// www.everydayhealth.com/womens-health/cancers-affectingwomen-today.aspx