QUETTA: Pakistan has the highest number of breast cancer cases among all Asian countries and statistics show that one in every nine women in the country is at risk of developing breast cancer, according to experts.

Speaking at a seminar held in Kalat on Thursday in connection with the Pink Ribbon campaign, they said that the situation in Balochistan was also very bad as there were increasing cases of breast cancer in the province, especially in its rural areas.

They said around 83,000 cases of breast cancer were reported annually in Pakistan and around 40,000 women lost their lives to the disease every year in the country. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women in the country, they added.

They said cases of cancer were increasing in Pakistan and the disease was affecting people belonging to all segments of society — men and women, young and old and rich and poor.

According to them, if a person from a poor family was suffering from cancer it creates a lot of financial problems for the family because treatment is very expensive. In rural areas, they added, there was no proper health infrastructure for providing treatment of chronic diseases like cancer.

Stressing the need for creating awareness about breast cancer among the people, they said it was very disturbing that most people did not take seriously symptoms of breast cancer until it was diagnosed.

The keynote speaker was Dr Mohammad Asad Pervez, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre.

MNA Robina Irfan, Dr Agha Irfan Karim, Kalat Deputy Commissioner Izzat Nazeer Baloch and some tribal elders attended the seminar.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2020