More than 1.3 lakh women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year and it had overtaken cervical cancer to become the
commonest cancer affecting the women in the country, said P Raghu Ram, the director and CEO of Ushalaxmi Breast Cancer Foundation Hyderabad.
Participating as the chief guest at an awareness programme conducted on ABC of breast health organised by The Hindu in association with Ushalaxmi Breast Cancer Foundation at the Vaageshwari Educational Institutions in Karimnagar on Tuesday, Dr Raghu Ram said that every 10 minutes a woman is succumbing to breast cancer in the country. Breast cancer has become a leading cause for mortality among the women in the country, he said and added that lack of awareness and absence of national breast cancer screening programme were affecting the women. Appealing women to break silence and remove the taboo on breast cancer, he said that even the educated women have taboo about the breast cancer and added that the women, who crossed 40 years , should go in for digital mammography, which would have less discomfort and less radiation. “We cannot prevent cancer, but we can detect it and there is no vaccination,” he maintained. Enlightening the girl students about breast cancer, he said only five percent of breast cancer cases occur due to genetic reasons. He also said that even one per cent of men also suffer from breast cancer in the country. Responding to the queries posed by the students, Dr Raghu Ram said that the breast cancer is not caused due to does not cause through birth control pill. He said that the breast cancer may spread to liver, lungs and bone.
Vaageshwari College correspondent and secretary G Srinivas Reddy stressed on the need to launch a crusade against the breast and other cancer diseasesVaageshwari Engineering College principal Ch Srinivas, Vaageshwari college of pharmacy principal Ramanarasimha Reddy, Vaageshwari institute of pharmaceutical sciences principal Ramakrishna and others were also present.
