Breast cancer threatens Tunisian women...incidence rates increase annually
Doctors in Tunisia warn that breast cancer cases among women are witnessing a significant annual increase, to the point that they now represent 30 percent of the total number of tumor carriers in the country.
This year, Tunisia has recorded more than 3,800 cases of breast cancer in women, with expectations that the number of women with breast tumors will reach 4,000 by the year 2024. This has prompted health authorities and civil society organizations active in the field of cancer patient care to launch extensive campaigns to raise awareness and investigate tumors. In various regions of the country, especially throughout the month of October, coinciding with the global date for breast cancer prevention campaigns.
Survivors of the disease
Every year, thousands of women in Tunisia fight their battle against breast cancer with a treatment protocol that lasts an average of one year and includes surgery, radiology sessions, and chemotherapy, so that approximately 50 percent of them are lucky to survive.
Professor of Surgical Oncology, Mohamed Al-Ayadi, says that diagnosing the disease early allows women to receive treatment faster and with less side effects, which provides them with a 90 percent chance of recovery.
The treatment protocol includes surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and hormonal and immunotherapy is also used in some cases.
The specialist in surgical oncology believes that the development witnessed by the world in hormonal therapy and immunotherapy has proven great effectiveness in resisting difficult types of breast cancer, noting that these modern treatments have begun to be available in Tunisia in recent years.
The doctor draws attention to the fact that psychological support for the patient and the strength of her personality in the face of the malignant disease is an important part of the treatment, in which the family and the patient’s surroundings play a pivotal role because the lives of these women change after diagnosis and the rate of recovery is affected by the extent of their acceptance of treatment and their discipline for it.
Causes of serious illness
The professor of oncology surgery confirms that the causes of the disease that is dangerous to women’s health are different, including those related to hormones, especially in women who suffer from prolonged hormonal infusion, namely women who menstruate at an early age and continue to menstruate until an advanced age, or women who delay marriage and childbearing and avoid breastfeeding. From the breast or resort to using birth control pills and hormonal treatments during menopause.
Regarding hereditary genetic factors, the doctor says that they cannot be controlled, and if there is a history of tumors in family members, the woman must monitor her health well.
Lifestyle and a number of external factors, such as smoking, alcohol abuse, night work, weight gain, eating foods containing palm oil, fast food, fried foods, and psychological stress, play a role in reducing the body’s immunity and allowing cancer cells to move.
Early detection is half the cure
In October of each year, the health authorities in Tunisia launch widespread awareness campaigns to encourage women to undergo self-examination and medical examination, and medical personnel travel to rural cities to undertake the examinations of thousands of women and investigate tumors.
This month, the Ministry of Health established pink villages in various rural and rural areas to enable women to undergo the necessary examinations to detect tumors early so that women can obtain treatment in a timely manner, thus raising the hope of recovery to more than 80 percent, as is the case in developed countries. .
Survivors of the disease are an inspiration
Mrs. Rawda Zarrouk, President of the Cancer Patients Association in Tunisia and a survivor of the malignant disease, says that moral support for women from women who have lived through the same disease experience and survived is a helpful factor for them, and it is one of the goals of her association, which has been working for years in the field of supporting female patients by receiving hundreds of them and providing psychological treatment and medication. their.
Within the Cancer Patients Association, the experiences of recovered survivors turn into a source of inspiration for those who are about to receive treatment.
Volunteers receive cancer patients at the association and accompany them in hospitals while making appointments, purchasing medications, undergoing surgical operations, and during chemotherapy classes.
Rawda Zarrouk says that the association was a refuge for many women who had been abandoned by their families, especially husbands, some of whom chose to divorce their wife as soon as they heard the news of her contracting the malignant disease.
The activist pointed out that patients are demanding that medicines be provided and late appointments be brought closer due to overcrowding, because delayed treatment opportunities claim the lives of many women who could have survived by receiving timely treatment.