KATH to offer free cancer screening

Kumasi, Dec. 24, GNA - The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) is to organize a three-day free medical screening on cancers of the breast, cervix, head and neck for members of the general public. The exercise, which would take place from Wednesday, December 28 to Friday December 30, forms part of the hospital's programme to inculcate the culture of preventive medicine among Ghanaians.

Dr Baffour-Awuah, Head of the Oncology Directorate of the hospital, announced this in an interview in Kumasi on Friday.

He noted that the abysmal lack of preventive medicine practice among Ghanaians was a major contributory factor to the rising incidence of preventable deaths in the country.

Dr Baffour-Awuah said the advances in medicine had now made it possible for most diseases including cancers to be cured, if they were detected in their early stages.

"But because we do not go to hospital for regular check-ups, most diseases are detected in their terminal stages, when it is too late and advanced to cure", he noted.

Dr Baffour-Awuah, who is a Specialist Radiation Oncologist, cited the example at the Radiotherapy Centre of the hospital, where most cancer patients report late due to the pervasive lack of priority for preventive medicine in the country.

He said due to regular check-ups, about two thirds of all cancer cases reported to the centre was in their terminal stages when it was either too expensive or impossible to cure.

"By organizing this free cancer screening for the public, we hope to drive home to members of the public the need to adopt regular medical check-ups and adopt other preventive medicine practices that will reduce people's susceptibility to cancers", he emphasized.

Dr Baffour-Awuah threw an open invitation to the general public to come to the Radiotherapy Centre of the KATH for the exercise and have themselves examined for cancers and other ailments.