Barbados on positive breast cancer path
By George Alleyne
As Barbados joins with the
world in observing Breast Cancer
Awareness Month, it is celebrating
the fact that not only has the
number of deaths from this disease
been stabilized but also that
mortality number is low for more
than 10 years.
The over a decade old consistent
low breast cancer death rate
does not mean there is a reduction
of persons diagnosed, in fact
it is the opposite as one volunteer
non-governmental organization,
Barbados Cancer Society, is seeing
an increase in patients to the
extent that a new infected one is
discovered every week — but they
are not dying.
“Even though we’re finding so
many cases the survival rate has
remained stable. That explains
why the mortality rate remains
between nine and 11 percent,” said
gynecologist and Medical Coordinator
of the Barbados Cancer
Society’s Breast Screening Program
Dr. Shirley Hanuman-Jhagroo
as she pointed out that this
death rate has stabilized for more
than a decade because patients
are being diagnosed early.
“And that’s owed to awareness.
That is why there is so much
emphasis on the side of the
awareness.”
“The earlier the diagnosis is
made the patient’s survival rate
increases. If you’re diagnosed
with Stage Zero or Stage One,
your prognosis is almost 99 per
cent survival compared with
somebody who is diagnosed with
Stage Four, that person’s prognosis
is 15 to 20 per cent. This is why
early diagnosis makes the difference,”
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Caribbean L 28 ife, October 16-22, 2020
she explained.
Dr Hanuman-Jhagroo said
that over the past 10 years her
clinic has been diagnosing persons
by an overwhelming majority
have Stage Zero and Stage One
breast cancer because women on
the island have been frequently
coming forward for screening and
to be taught the proper method of
self-examination.
But it had not been this way
prior to 2002 when this clinic
began its first screening and some
years after.
“Before this program was
started in 2002 Stage Four people
hid. If they had anything in their
breast, for them it is a stigma and
there is no life after breast cancer.
They looked at it as a death
sentence and they knew there
was no point telling anybody ‘let
me just die with this thing’,” Dr
Hanuman-Jhagroo said.
Many others who hid and
shunned public life were unaware
of what stage their cancer had
progressed to but had given up on
life nonetheless.
Opening of the clinic was paired
with public advocacy impressing
on women the life-saving importance
of frequent screening and
that breast cancer should carry
no stigma.
“The options for treatment
that the patient will respond to is
important. When you get to Stage
Four, what are the options, very
little because it’s already spread
somewhere, metastasis.
“Once it’s metastasized it’s difficult
to control the cancer. The
whole objective of screening is
to diagnose the breast cancer as
early as possible.”
She said that when screened,
at a Stage Zero or Stage One
nothing is palpable or can be felt
by hand. At this stage the clinic
subjects patients to mammogram
examination that shows up a tiny
cluster of cancerous cells.
“What we look for in the mammograms
is very specific,” she
said, adding, “mammograms
have remained the gold standard.
We look for what is called microcalcification
which is always diagnostic
of cancer. Then having
found that we go after it, do the
biopsy. Then those patients probably
can have a little excision of
the area.
“And they do very well maybe
as a 20-year survivor.
“A lot depends on the stage at
diagnosis.”
“With early detection lives are
being saved. That’s the emphasis
of this whole thing to save the
lives. We still can’t prevent the
disease because we don’t know
the cause.
“Barbados is a matriarchal
society. Women just seem to take
over all the duties they have to
take over. We have to keep them
healthy,” she said.
Dr. Shirley Hamuman-Jhagroo. Cancer Society’s Facebook page
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