By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
In their pursuit to save lives and help humanity, Orange Foundation, through their ‘improving cancer survivorship through clinical and patient based interventions’ project, has funded surgery for over 150 breast cancer patients across the country.
Cancer is one of the world’s leading causes of death; millions of people are affected worldwide with over a third of them in the African setting. However, the estimated death toll from the condition is on the increase, especially in sub–Saharan Africa.
Speaking last Friday at the Connaught Hospital during their free screening and awareness raising campaign, Administration Executive at Orange Foundation, Cordelia Sogie-Thomas said cancer incidence has been steadily increasing in the country since the opening of the Sierra Leone cancer registry.
She highlighted that recent data shows that approximately 2000 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2022 and a cumulative 8,880 cases were diagnosed over a five-year period and the most glaring of the data showed that over 70% of the newly diagnosed patients die within the same year of diagnosis.
She further stated that Cummings-John et al. reported that over 70% of patients with breast cancer seen at Connaught Hospital presented with late-stage disease, and about 14% had clinical metastasis at diagnosis.
She said despite the services provided at Connaught, patients continue to face serious challenges in accessing care for their cancer and most patient lack the social support needed to go through the care process and the cost of diagnosing and treating cancer is enormous that most of the patients may experience catastrophic expenditure and impoverishment in their homes.
She continued that financial risk protective strategies are largely absent in Sierra Leone as such most patients have to pay for their services at the point of care and in addition, psychological support and survivorship support systems are not readily available to those suffering from cancer and receiving care at the Connaught hospital.
She said the ‘improving cancer survivorship through clinical and patient based interventions’ project aims to address four facets of the challenges of cancer care at the Connaught Hospital, including education and training of 10 nurses over a three-day period on the basic principles of clinical psychology as it applies to cancer care and those nurses will serve as a team providing psycho-social support to cancer patients during and after their treatment and palliation.
She said they aim to increase breast and cervical cancer awareness through the production of two short videos on the two diseases and the videos will cover professional description about common signs and symptoms of the disease and what to do if someone experiences the symptoms and others
Doctor Sam Sama Banya, Surgical Oncologist at the Connaught Hospital said as a breast cancer month, they have patients going in for screening to know the status of their breast, and that they always advise them about the next steps if they discover any abnormality until they are given the appropriate treatment.
He said the number of breast cancer is on the increase according to their findings, highlighting that, they now have people at the hospital that are not only examining and giving them the awareness of breast cancer, but that they also have medical staff to treat them and also do the surgery.
He further noted that breast cancer illness was always on the increase in the country, but due to continuous sensitization and awareness rising, many women are coming out to visit the hospital.
Doctor Kelfala Marah, a training gynecologist said they cannot pinpoint a certain cause of breast cancer, noting that most cases occurs spontaneously and other are caused by diet practices including the drinking of alcohol, smoking and people with overweight bodies also can be at risk.
