Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 10, 2018 News
– Set to offer free pap smear services this month
State-of-the-art treatment is currently being offered at the Guyana Cancer Institute in the form of Brachytherapy. This form of therapy is one that has proven to be successful treatment for a number of cancers, but according to officials of the institute, it is being used to exclusively treat cancer of the cervix for the time being.
About 50 applications of the treatment have already been administered to some 20 patients at a cost of some G$300,000 per application. This cost, according to Medical Director and Consultant Oncologist at the Cancer Institute, Dr. Sayan Chakraborty, is in fact a fraction of the cost required by some overseas institutions.
“If you send the patient to a hospital outside of Guyana it is US$5,000 [approx. G$1 million] and in Guyana we are doing it for G$300,000,” asserted Dr. Chakraborty.
This new treatment was acquired during the latter part of last year.
Added to this, the Institute is able to offer a pap smear, a form of cervical cancer screening to patients, at a cost of about $3,500. But for this entire month, women will be eligible for this service at no cost. However, the Institute is looking for support from the private sector to sustain this gesture aimed at combating the challenge of cervical cancer.
“Saving lives is something really noble and as we say ‘early detection saves life’ and we are here to save lives…if we join hands and combine our efforts, the corporate businesses or people who have sympathy for the people who suffer,” said Dr. Syed Ghazi, the Outreach Director at the Cancer Institute.
This move comes as part of the Institute’s commemoration of Cervical Cancer Awareness month which is observed annually during the month of January.
“We [are] inviting any woman who is living in Georgetown or anywhere to come here and get themselves screened,” said Dr. Ghazi. The criteria for this screening service, he disclosed, is once a woman has attained the age of 20 and is sexually active.
Cervical cancer is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus [HPV] and Dr. Ghazi at a press conference yesterday said that often, because of the immense attention given to Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, little is given to other daunting ailments.
But according to him, cervical cancer cannot be placed on the back burner, since it is the second most common cancer in women globally. He disclosed that based on available statistics 36,000 women die every year in the Americas from this cancer.
“It is like an epidemic in the Caribbean and particularly in Guyana,” said Dr. Ghazi. For this reason, he underscored that the cancer institute has been in the forefront in fighting against the scourge of cervical cancer, which he described as a “monster”.
He noted that through its outreaches, the Cancer Institute has been reaching women countrywide to ensure that they are screened for cervical cancer. Currently, keen focus is being given to Regions Six and Seven. A number of other regions including Regions One and Nine have already been covered, and Dr. Ghazi anticipates that the Cancer Institute’s outreaches will cover the entire country by next year.
This is especially important since the Institute is part of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, which is an umbrella organisation for all the cancer organisations in Caribbean countries.
Last year, the Cancer Institute was named among the top three performers in the ongoing campaign to eliminate cervical cancer from the Caribbean and South America by 2025.
“We at the Cancer Institute are trying to address that issue as much as we can, to eliminate this monster, and we have provided state-of-the-art treatment which most Caribbean countries do not yet have,” related Dr. Ghazi.
Sharing the spotlight yesterday was, Dr. Chakraborty. He pointed out that while cervical cancer is a troubling cancer, its impact is often compounded by misinformation or ignorance regarding the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. This, he said, has often resulted in most patients seeking medical attention until they are at an advanced stage.
For the past year alone, about 80 patients were attended to at the Cancer Institute. But according to Dr. Chakraborty, before seeking proper health care, many patients are not privy to information that their condition can be addressed at an early stage or they simply do not know what to do when they are having problems associated with cervical cancer.
The cervix is the lowest part of the womb and, according to Dr. Chakraborty, symptoms associated with advancing cancer in this area of the body include prolonged discharge, foul-smelling discharge, bloody discharge, discharge mixed with blood, pain or bleeding after sexual intercourse.
“These are some of the symptoms that should ring alarms immediately. So if somebody is having these kinds of symptoms, it is advised that they go to the doctor,” said Dr. Chakraborty.
But to address this condition the Cancer Institute has being using pap smears to detect cancer in the cervix at an early stage.
A pap smear, he explained, is a three to four-minute procedure which is completely out-patient based, and does not cause pain.
“It is simply taking swabs from the vagina and the cervix and reading it under a microscope. So if there is even a precancerous lesion which has not yet turned into cancer but has the potential of turning into cancer, even that lesion can be taken up. A screening is highly recommended for all the female population of Guyana who are at the reproductive age, after their first sexual intercourse.”
This is important, Dr. Chakraborty underscored, “because cancer of the cervix does not spare anybody. I have found patients as early as 17 years of age and as late as 78 years of age having cancer of the cervix.”
Screening with a pap smear should be done once yearly or, at the least, once every two years, Dr. Chakraborty recommended, since cancer of the cervix poses a big threat. Once detected and treated early, he said that cancer of the cervix can be cured and persons can have a healthy and normal life.
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