AT least one or two breast cancer surgeries are conducted at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWMH) in Suva every week.
This was revealed by the associate professor surgery at the Fiji National University’s (FNU’s) College of Medicine, Nursing and Heath Sciences (CMNHS) Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete, who said the incidents of breast cancer were alarmingly increasing with 128 breast cancer surgeries being conducted at the CWMH so far this year.
He said it was important that patients presented themselves early at hospitals so they could receive treatment in a timely manner.
“One of the highly rated messages in fighting breast cancer is early detection.
“People should know that in Fiji, we are able to treat the early forms of breast cancer which leads to higher long-term survival rate,” Dr Waqainabete said.
Dr Raghawa Sharma, a consultant pathologist at the Wesley Hospital in Australia said it was important that patients and their families were familiar with the diagnosis and treatment processes.
“We examine and confirm the diagnosis following which a biopsy is done. We then look at it under the microscope but before that there’s a lot of technicians who process these things in a proper way.
“Then we decide which grade the tissue is. The grade of the tissue shows how fast the tissue is growing,” Dr Sharma said.
He added females needed to be encouraged to undertake self-examination and visit medical facilities to undertake breast examination and mammogram.
