PESHAWAR
Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa aide on health Dr Riaz Anwar on Wednesday stressed the importance of timely breast cancer screening as the first step to reducing breast cancer deaths in the country.
He said this while inaugurating the mammography services at Peshawar Government General Hospital in Neshterabad, first hospital to provide free breast cancer diagnosis services, said a statement.
Project Director Human Capital Investment in Primary Health Care Dr. Ikramullah, Director Arnam Akifullah, hospital administration officials, Director Murf Dr. Basit and a large number of women participated in the event.
According to the details, the hospital would provide the mammography services for breast cancer diagnosis on a slip of ten rupees.
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Adviser to the Chief Minister on Health, Dr Riaz Anwar, speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the mammography services installed at the Government General Hospital Peshawar for free diagnosis of breast cancer, said that 40 percent of the cancer patients across the country are breast cancer patients. Dr Riaz Anwar said that KP has the highest rate of breast cancer.
He said that the main reason for the spread of breast cancer is lack of diagnosis and awareness, adding that regular management of diagnosis and awareness should be done in the remote areas of the province so that the increasing rate of this disease can be reduced by enabling timely diagnosis of the affected women.
“Timely diagnosis can avoid radiation treatment,” he said and lauded the World Bank for running these hospitals to provide free services to the people of Pakhtunkhwa.
The Health Advisor said that they are building a hospital in Khyber Medical University, in which an entire floor is dedicated for the diagnosis and research of breast cancer.
Project Director Human Capital Investment in Primary Health Care Dr Ikramullah said in his address at the ceremony that so far this hospital has diagnosed more than a thousand women for breast cancer.
The director of Institute of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (IRNUM) Akifullah said that Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission is providing cancer treatment services through its 20 centers across the country. Arnam is the first hospital to be built in Pakhtunkhwa for cancer treatment.
Treatment of stage four breast cancer costs more thanRs8 million. He said that such measures will lead to awareness and timely diagnosis of this disease, which can reduce the life risk of women.
