‘Gynaecologists must sensitise patients about breast cancer’

LUCKNOW: Despite having knowledge, gynaecologists failed to disseminate it to patients to save them from breast cancer, finds a study recently published in the World Journal of Surgery.

Prof Jain, senior faculty in the department of general surgery at the King George’s Medical University conducted the survey along with Dr Gitika Singh, assistant professor and Astha Agrawal, fellow, student scholarship programme, over six months, talking to and interviewing gynaecologists.

In developed countries, up to 70% cases of breast cancer were diagnosed early. In India, 50-60% of the patients in any particular year were diagnosed late, said Prof Jain. “We found almost every gynaecologist knew about breast cancer, its symptoms, selfbreast examination, breast conservation surgery and also how to share the examination method with other women. There was no doubt about their knowledge. But when we asked them whether they shared these tips, majority answered in the negative,” said Prof Jain. The team questioned over 150 gynaecologists and 67% said they could not disseminate the knowledge for prevention of breast cancer. This is the situation when government and private medical bodies are conducting numerous sessions on breast cancer and insisting that gynaecologists share the knowledge for prevention. Breast cancer being one of the leading diseases among women in India, prevention and self-examination were key to reducing the number of cases, said Prof Jain. “In fact, early detection is key to reducing almost all diseases,” said Dr Gitika Nanda Singh.