First Lady, Samina Arif Alvi here Thursday said breast cancer was a fatal disease and underlined the need for collective efforts to win the fight against it. Addressing an awareness seminar against breast cancer as chief-guest here at Khyber Medical Col-lege (KMC), she said that over 90 percent of pa-tients could be cured if diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
He said about 90,000 to one lakh people were diag-nosed with breast cancer every year in the country and around 50 percent of patients died due to delay in diagnosis and treatment. Samina Alvi said the number of women and girls coming to hospitals for screening had increased due to awareness seminars and workshops in all provinces of Pakistan includ-ing KP. She said the even awareness sessions and workshops were held at remote areas of Balochistan and Wana in South Waziristan that was a positive step in the right direction.
Appreciating the ‘one-stop clinic’ for diagnoses, treatment and follow up tests of the treated patients at Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Samina Alvi said that it was praised worthy step of the hospital, which was benefiting a large number of people of Khyber Pakthunkhwa and merged tribal districts. She said doctors and family’s cooperation was im-perative to win the battle against the disease. Sa-mina Alvi advised women and girls to adopt the habit of self- examination and immediately come to hospitals and take appointments from specialist doctors for checkup in case of witnessing any ab-normal changes.
