Breast Cancer Screening in Ghana: Is There A Need?

Abstract

Seven hundred and twelve Ghanaian women aged between 20- 80 years (mean 39.9 years) were offered free physical examination of the breast. Thirteen clinically obvious breast malignancies at various clinical stages were detected· 3 out of 412 southern and 10 out of 300 northern Ghanaian women respectively. Only one was not aware of the presence of her breast lump. Six underwent excision biopsy with histological continuation of the diagnosis. Two were advanced T4c and T4b lesions with lung metastases in one: the second refused toilet nl3Slectomy because "it is a taboo to remove the breast"". The remaining five refused biopsy confirmation because the lumps were painless and were not giving them any troubles. They would not have their breasts removed. because four considered it a taboo and one could not live with one breast. The two advanced cases were failures of herbal treatment One had the breast lump excised. but it recurred 18 months later - there was no histological examination of the specimen. On the whole nearly 40% of the study group had some abnormality with their breast. There were 53 (7.4%) fibroadenomas and 203 (28%) fibroadenosis cases.