Breast cancer awareness & screening month-long camp starts

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) in connection with the World Breast Cancer Day on Thursday started the breast cancer awareness campaign for the public as well as doctors and health workers in the hospital.

October is recognised worldwide as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The lead for the event is being taken by the Department of Surgery, KTH and Khyber Medical College.

This year the Surgery Department has collaborated with the Department of Community Medicine and Department of Radiology, KMC & KTH, for arranging free screening and education of the public. In addition, there will be teaching sessions for postgraduate students, nurses and paramedics. Head of Oncology Department of the Hayatabad Medical Complex Prof Dr Abid Jameel and Dr Sadaf Chiragh and Dr Nabila Javed from IRNUM will participate in the activity. The inauguration began with the ribbon-cutting ceremony by Dean KMC & Chief Executive Khyber Medical College, Prof Dr Mahmud Aurangzeb and Chairperson Department of Surgery Prof Dr Mah Muneer Khan followed by a guided tour of the guests through all the planned activities organised.

They were told where all the women attending the camp would be shown how to perform self-examination. This would be followed by their clinical assessment and breast ultrasound and their level of awareness regarding the disease would be assessed on proformas. It was very promising to see that 20 patients were already there to be seen while the inauguration was being conducted.

The ceremony was attended by BoG Prof Dr Shah Jehan, Hospital Director Dr Tahir Nadeem Khan, Medical Director Prof Dr Amir Azhar, Prof Surgery Dr Mushtaq Ahmad, surgeon Prof Dr Qutbe Alam, Chairperson, Radiology Department Prof Dr Hina Gul other faculty members, Nursing Director Rahmatullah, Managerial and Nursing Staff.

In the past one year, Surgical B Unit of the department with its faculty members being Prof Dr Mah Muneer Khan, Dr Attaullah Khan, Dr Hizbullah Khan And Dr Irum Sabir Ali received more than seven hundred breast cancer referrals from all over the province and neighbouring Afghanistan.

It received 200 new patients of breast cancer. Bearing in mind the fact that in the West, a facility which sees 30 new breast cancer patients, is recognised as a breast unit, this figure is very high. The unit provides standard care with all cancer patients discussed in a multidisciplinary meeting held every two weeks between itself, Prof Abid Jameel and Dr Sadaf Chiragh from Department of Oncology, Hayatabad Medical Complex and Dr Nabila Javaid from IRNUM Peshawar.