Although cancer is synonymous with death for many people, health specialists in Guantanamo show that every year there are new possibilities of cure and life expectancy for those affected by breast neoplasm, thanks to Cuba´s scientific advances and the work of multidisciplinary teams offering free care, unlike other nations.
Although cancer is synonymous with death for many people, health specialists in Guantanamo show that every year there are new possibilities of cure and life expectancy for those affected by breast neoplasm, thanks to Cuba´s scientific advances and the work of multidisciplinary teams offering free care, unlike other nations.
This is evidenced by the reduction in mortality by breast cancer in this eastern province, where a rate of 19, 8 deaths per hundred thousand inhabitants are registered, below the national average and several developed countries.
This significant breakthrough give prestige to oncologists, surgeons, pathologists and other specialists which in Guantanamo are part of the mastology consultations since 1982, in which all patients sent are assisted, always with the humanistic approach to saving lives, beyond high costs of this assistance to the Cuban public health system.
It is noteworthy that investments are huge for the import of large-solving equipment, reagents and drugs aimed at the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
These costs are increased due to the purchase of these resources through third countries due to economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States over 50 years ago.
Thus the care of women affected by breast cancer becomes an odyssey that can be overcome by the will and humanism of surgeons like Paulino Four, oncologists Lazaro David Cardona and Neudis Simon, among other professionals, who change the pessimistic reality of the disease in Guantanamo.
The successes are evidenced by the reduction in the number of cases diagnosed in advanced stages, and therefore the possibility of applying a therapeutic curative to a greater number of women.
According to estimations of Dr. Lazaro David Cardona, head of the provincial group for preventing and fight against cancer, these achievements are also fruits of the efforts by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana and other institutions of higher research rigor, which places Cuba in the world advanced scientific and technological development in health.
These treatments, combined with chemotherapy and radiation, hormones and surgical methods where necessary, contribute to the reduction of mortality in the country for breast cancer, which is reversed in women´s survival and quality of life.
These results are further evidence of the increased awareness of women as to the importance of breast self-examination and promptly visit to a doctor if suspect signs of the disease appear. These are also essential requirements to transform the everyday reality of this neoplasm which is preventable and curable.
Translation: Ilia Charon