Caloocan to launch information drive vs breast cancer

MANILA, Oct. 6 (PNA) — As the country celebrates breast cancer awareness day this Sunday, the Caloocan city government said it will launch an information drive against the dreaded disease.

Caloocan mayor Enrico Echiverri said the Caloocan Health Department (CHD) and other city-managed medical centers will be in the forefront of this information drive.

He added that CHD and its other medical affiliates will be teaching womenfolk in the city the dangers of breast cancer, which is known to spread to other parts of the body if left untreated, and self-breast examination.

Echiverri stated this method involves feeling breasts for possible distortions or swelling.

Women interested in learning this method are advised to stand in front of a mirror with their top expose and look for signs of dimpling, swelling, soreness, or redness in all parts of their breasts in the mirror.

While standing in front the mirror, they are also instructed to palpate their breasts with their fingers, feeling for lumps and check the nipples and the area just beneath them.

Patients are also instructed to squeeze each nipples for any discharge.

Echiverri said self breast examination is similar to clinical breast examinations, except that in the latter, the tests are performed by a doctor or nurse rather than the patients themselves.

He added that early detection is very crucial in treating breast cancer as it is the most deadly cancer for women, pointing out that disease alone caused the death of some 502,000 persons in 2005.