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Seek cancer treatment as soon as possible – Nella
…It’s better to be safe than sorry
Chief Executive Officer of Guyana’s lone Cancer Institute, George Nella is calling on local doctors to refer cancer patients to the entity as soon as possible instead of first trying their method(s) of treatment.
CEO, George Nella
Nella made this call during a recent interview with this newspaper at the Cancer Institute of Guyana, located in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)’s compound.
Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by out-of-control cell growth. There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Each is classified by the type of cell that is initially affected.
Cancer harms the body when damaged cells divide uncontrollably, to form lumps, or masses of tissues called tumors.
In Guyana, the most common types of cancer are cervical breast, leukemia, prostate and colorectal.
The Cancer Institute’s CEO is imploring that doctors (if they are not cancer specialists) refer all suspected cancer patients to the entity to get treated by qualified personnel.
He said a large number of patients visit the institute for treatment when their illness is at the last stage, at which point nothing much can be done to save their lives.
“Some come when it is at the last stage, the survival level is less and the treatment is also less. Those patients suffer the most while the patients who come at an early stage are doing well,” the CEO stressed.
There are concerns that some private doctors have been misdiagnosing and treating cancer patients for other illnesses.
This newspaper recently met with a mother of three, Hemwattie Kanhai from Corentyne Berbice. She was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment at GPHC.
The woman explained that sometime last year she started to experience severe pain in her left breast.
She visited numerous private doctors but was only given pain killers. No one advised her that there was a possibility that she might have had breast cancer.
It was only after the intervention of a friend that she visited the Cancer Institute and was told that she has stage two breast cancer.
Meanwhile, Nella stressed that he has raised the issue of patients seeking cancer treatment too late with the Ministry of Health and is hoping that some form of awareness can be raised across the country.
Cancer Institute of Guyana.
The Cancer Institute of Guyana is a private entity which came into existence in 2006 to detect and treat cancer via a collaborative effort with the Government of Guyana.
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