Breast Cancer in Pakistan

Everyone is affected by cancer the old and young, the poor and rich, children and women. It is creating sever financial and social problems on families in Pakistan. Pakistan is a developing country and most of the population is living in rural areas. In rural areas of Pakistan, no formal health infrastructure is available for rural population. Illiteracy is also a major cause of breast cancer among women because women have no awareness about personal hygienic conditions. Most of the Pakistani women have no proper access to the medical facilities due to gender-based discrimination. More than half of the population is based upon women. Sexually transmitted diseases and breast cancer has become very common disease among women in Pakistan. In rural areas of Pakistan, socio-economic conditions are responsible for the poor health of the women. At some stage of life, 1 in 8 Pakistani women has become the patient of breast cancer .

In Asia, Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer. Young women also present at advanced stage of breast cancer, which has negative effect on prognosis. In rural areas, rural women are developing a great number of breast cancers every year because it is an inherited disease, which is transmitted from mother to daughter. Pakistani rural as well as urban women are facing cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers. Screening centers are not available in Pakistan to diagnose various type of cancer and every year a great number of women are dying due to breast cancer and Hepatitis-C.

Mammogram is a screening program, which is very helpful and effective in the detection of the disease. Most of the population cannot afford this screening program because it is very expensive. The simplest technique is Breast self-examination (BSE) to check one-self monthly. Trained medical practitioners and nurses at health centers teach the women, how to use Breast self-examination technique once a month. Majority of the Pakistani women are living in poor conditions and cannot afford expensive screening tests. Therefore, they can use easily this technique by themselves and detection breast cancer at early stage.