Breast cancer death rate ‘world’s highest’

Breast cancer remains the most common cancer afflicting Barbadian women, killing them at one of the highest rates in the world, the Barbados Cancer Society has disclosed.

In 2020, 189 breast cancer cases were diagnosed in Barbados with 111 people dying from the disease, said Dr Stephanie Date, Acting Medical Coordinator of the society’s Breast Screening Programme of the Barbados Cancer Society (BCS).

Among all cancers, breast cancer is second only to prostate cancer.

As the observance of Breast Cancer Awareness month ends, Dr Dates revealed a global survey conducted last year showed that Barbados has the highest rate of breast cancer deaths in the world.

Dr Date said: “It is two-sided, we can’t assume that the cases are actually increasing because for all we know, screening is increasing. Hopefully, increasing screening is the case. But we do also believe, research does show, that there are some racial disparities at play as well and that women of Afro-Caribbean descent are unfortunately disproportionately affected by this disease and unfortunately, more severe types as well.”

The general practitioner,  a doctoral student in pharmacology, said Canadian-based researchers are conducting research targeting Barbadian women and breast cancer. Dr Date also added that in an effort to take breast cancer screening to another level, the Barbados Cancer Society now has a multi-million-dollar mammogram machine.

She said: “This is one of a kind. It is a phenomenal disease. A lot of the time both men and women are very scared to come forward to get a mammogram because they hear that it hurts and it takes so long. But this is not the case with this machine. This machine is precise and we can actually use it on persons with small or large breasts, men and women, all ages, and it is a lot more precise and we are very excited about this.”

(AH)