Breast cancer! – Is there enough knowledge and practice?

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among women worldwide, impacting 2.1 million women each year. In India, it accounts for the second most common cancer in women. Around 80,000 cases are estimated to occur annually and it accounts for 14% of all cancers in women. In 2018- 627,000 women died of breast cancer globally - greatest number of cancer related deaths. The increasing incidence of breast cancer in economically developing countries is influenced likely by lifestyle changes and growing urbanization. Breast cancer is distinguished from other types of cancer by the fact that it occurs in a visible organ and can be detected and treated at an early stage. But the awareness and practice of breast self-examination (BSE) is low which this study tries to explore. It is a cross sectional study done in a teaching medical college among the paramedical female students. 200 participants were included using simple random sampling. The questionnaire was administered after getting informed consent and the results were analyzed using IBM-SPSS software version 21. In our study among the 200 participants 174 (87%) of them are aware of the disease breast cancer. Among the 174 participants for 72 participants internet was the major source of information about breast cancer. There was a strong association between the education of the mothers and awareness of breast cancer among students (p=0.026). Among 112 participants who are aware of Breast self-examination (BSE) only 17 had performed.