Senior Resident-Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Dr Addae Aboagye of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has assured that the breast can be reconstructed after breast cancer treatment.
He said this in an interview with Blessing Doe on the Teknokrat show on Focus 94.3 FM to enlighten Ghanaians about breast cancer as part of the breast cancer awareness month.
Every year, the month October is set aside to raise awareness about breast cancer in women especially. The past years have posed a challenge to everything and breast cancer prevention is no exception.
Dr Aboagye bemoaned that most women fail to get treatment for breast cancer because of their perception that when their breast tissues are taken off nothing can be done and they might have to walk around with a ‘flat chest’. According to him, plastic surgeons are there to help with the reconstructive process.
”The fact that they might have to take the breast off, which could actually be curative does not mean that you are going to walk around with a flat chest. So, if we are able to find it early and we take the breast off, give you some medication and you are being cured, then we come in and make sure that we can actually reconstruct the breast for you so that you actually wear a bra or a dress without stuffing cotton wool and clothes in your bra just to get a bump,” he reassured.
Speaking on the symptoms of breast cancer, Dr Aboagye emphasised that “Breast cancer does not have a particular symptom, but there may be an incidental finding. They are incidental findings, when somebody just par pace the breast and finds out there is a lump, so most commonly is feeling the breast lump but sometimes you can have some bloody discharges within the breast.”
He added that cancer in the breast does not have a cause that can be traced to. But having a family history of breast cancer cases can cause breast cancer in both females and males.
Dr Aboagye advised both male and female to constantly do a self-examination of the breast as breast cancer can be detected in both sexes.
