Close to 1,200 community health care workers will attempt to screen and identify breast cancer patients in nine districts of Telangana.
The massive voluntary screening programme, which was launched by Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation (UBCF) and Mahila Samatha Society here on Tuesday, will also aim to study the disease burden of breast cancer in Telangana in the next one year.
The all-women team of village-level health care workers, also known as Health Resource Persons (HRP), aims at screening one lakh women in 93 mandals of Hyderabad, Medak, Mahabubnagar, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Warangal, Nalgonda and Khammam districts.
In collaboration with AP Mahila Samatha Society and UBCF, the women underwent training by experts to conduct Clinical Breast Examination (CME), which will help them detect breast cancer at an early stage.
Documentary filmsThe training programme also consisted of documentary films on conducting CBE and Telugu booklets on detecting breast cancer.
“In Western countries, mammography is usually prescribed to detect breast cancer. However, since there is a lot of cost involved, we are basing our programme on physical examination. The community health workers have been trained to identify lumps of up to 2cm length and then refer them to a doctor,” says CEO and director, UBCF, P. Raghuram.
Unlike in Western countries, where the average age of women testing positive for breast cancer is above 50 years, in India, young women are also being diagnosed. “Here, typically, women between 25 and 50 years are getting diagnosed with breast cancer. Roughly, 60 per cent of women in India are diagnosed at a very late stage,” Dr. Raghuram said.
A similar screening programme is being planned to be taken up in 13 districts of AP.
