Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women all over the world1, including Bangladesh. Despite this in Bangladesh most of the women feel very shy to talk about breast related problems. Roche Bangladesh Limited has launched a breast cancer care (BC) project for rural & sub-urban females of Bangladesh in collaboration with Swisscontact Bangladesh. The objective of the project is Advancing women's healthcare management of breast cancer in Bangladesh through establishing multi-sectoral collaboration.
A pilot project has been designed and implemented in Sylhet area. Duration was around 2 months (October-November 2022). Based on the pilot findings we will explore scope of further scale up of the project. In these project 495 courtyard meetings were conducted in which 8755 community people participated and given awareness on breast cancer through storytelling by using flipcharts. Scientific seminars were held for community paramedics and they got training on the basic knowledge of breast cancer. Some health camps were conducted in which the participants learned on Breast Self Examination (BSE) through audio-visual content display. During the pilot project period 25 suspected breast cancer patients were referred by community paramedics to different govt. health facilities.
In these pilot project we have implemented some activities to raise community awareness on breast cancer and to break the shyness of the rural women so that they may come forward to health professionals for guidance if they develop any breast cancer symptoms. Project outcomes showed awareness on breast cancer among the community women have increased and they are reaching to the health professional for consultation or queries.
About 1 out of every 4 cancer patients in the world is affected by this cancer. With early diagnosis along with necessary treatments the chance of the disease being cured is about 99%; which comes down to 27% in advanced stage patients2 . Although all cancers of the human body are very difficult to diagnose at an early stage, breast cancer is much more likely to be detected at an early stage. The government of Bangladesh is proactive in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Reducing the mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a vital aspect in achieving Goal 3 of the SDGs. Cancer, especially breast cancer deserves the highest attention to mitigate the potential threats.
References
/GLOBOCAN 2018
Breast Cancer: Statistics [Internet; cited 2019, May 23]. Retrieved from
This website contains information which is targeted to the people of Bangladesh and could contain product details or information otherwise not accessible or valid in your country. Roche Bangladesh is not responsible for accessing such information that may not be in accordance with legal, regulatory, registration or use processes in your home country. Please note that, information on this site is not intended as medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for consulting with qualified doctor. We are unable to answer questions on individual disease treatment/ management matters. These should be discussed with your physician. We cannot answer product-related questions through this website. Nor this site acts as promotional/ commercial tool for products. It is not permissible to take the contents of this site and use it for commercial purpose, without written consent of Roche Bangladesh.