Pfizer holds media roundtable to round off breast cancer month

 By Edmund Smith-Asante

Multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation, Pfizer, has held a virtual media roundtable for over 40 journalists from Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Senegal, to climax this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The zoom meeting held last Friday, October 28, urged the public to take early detection seriously and help friends and families by encouraging regular self-examination and conversations with their doctors.

Healthcare practitioners were also encouraged to have open conversations and support patients.

While in 2020 the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, Global Cancer Observatory reported 4,482 and 28,380 new cases of breast cancer for Ghana and Nigeria respectively, the WHO’s Cancer Country Profile of Ghana 2020, said breast cancer was the number one cancer among women in the country, with an incidence of 20.4 per cent and a relatively high mortality rate.

Since 2000 Ghana’s breast cancer deaths have kept rising and in 2019, the country registered over 2,900 total deaths. In 2000 the number of breast cancer deaths was 1,336, according to Statistica.com.

Breast Care International, a non-governmental organisation, has established that close to 50 per cent of Ghanaian breast cancer patients, mostly women below the age of 50, end up dying, mainly due to late stage presentation as a result of myths and barriers.

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In a communique issued after the roundtable, Pfizer said it saw the Breast Cancer Awareness Month also popularly referred to as the Pink Month, as more than just one month a year. 

It said the month of October was an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to changing the lives of people with breast cancer for the better – from treatment to helping to remove barriers to equitable care and beyond.

To Pfizer, cancer care is driven by the hope to move forward and is powered by everything and everyone around the patient.

It believes that care must begin with each individual’s decision and actions, their community of friends, families, and advocates and the scientists and researchers who dedicate their lives to developing new treatments. 

Pfizer has supported patients and the breast cancer community for more than 20 years and says its goals are, powering more treatment options, and more breakthroughs, for everyone. 

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The Medical Director, East & Anglo West Africa for Pfizer, Kodjo Soroh; said, “Oncology remains a key therapeutic field for Pfizer in which we are working to deliver medical breakthroughs that have the potential to change patients’ lives across the region significantly and we are proud of these achievements, and we thank our media members, colleagues, HCPs and everyone for this event.” 

Ghana

A Consultant (Radiotherapy and Oncology) and Director, National Centre for Radiotherapy Oncology & Nuclear Medicine, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Dr Joel Yarney, stated; “The transformative impact of science on breast cancer is evident within the breast cancer community.”

He said “While we've made meaningful change for those living with this disease, our work is far from finished. It is crucial for patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer or even metastatic breast cancer to have the right information and expectations.”

He stated that it was their duty to encourage patients to have open conversations with their healthcare teams, to understand how they could be supported and how they could participate in their own care.

 “Taking an active role in their treatment can help them feel empowered in making the best decisions for themselves,” he said.

Nigeria

For his part, a Consultant, Clinical and Radiation Oncologist at the NSIA-LUTH Cancer Center, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Dr Adewumi Alabi, stated that "The importance of clinical research in breast cancer care cannot be overemphasised. These forums are critical as they allow us to share our best insights and findings that can support patients in winning the battle against cancer.

“Breast cancer itself is one of the deadliest diseases with a high prevalence in the area. On a positive note, we now have evidence-based updates and real-world data showing the efficacy of prescriptions in the management of HR+ HER2- mBC patients.”

Why breast cancer month?

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month started in October of 1985 as a partnership between the American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutical division of Imperial Chemical Industries, to promote mammograms as the most effective tool to fight breast cancer.