Over 700 persons have been diagnosed with cancer in Guyana since the start of the year, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, has revealed.

Speaking at the launch of the Pinktober campaign this morning, Dr. Anthony said prostate cancer was the leading cancer diagnosed for this year, followed by breast cancer.

He said while Guyana has made strides in both diagnosis and treatment, the country still continues to see a steady increase in cancer diagnosis.

“When we look at the profile in Guyana, the top cancer used to be breast cancer as number 1, but as of this year, the number one cancer is actually prostate cancer, followed by breast cancer, followed by cervical cancer and then colorectal cancer and if you put those four together, the stats for this year, it amounts to 46% of all cancers we have diagnosed this year,” the Health Minister said.

According to the Minister, some of the cancer cases could have been prevented, if persons were taking the disease and their own health much more seriously. He said more screening needs to take place.

“The big challenge we have, now that we have mammography machines in place, we need to get people to come to do their mammograms, from January to now we only did 1,667 mammograms with all of this new facility that we have put in place we have only done 1,667 mammograms, why is that?”, the Health Minister questioned.   

He said the problem is no longer one of access, but people are simply not making themselves available to be screened.

Of the persons screened so far for the year, the Minister said about 6.4% of them came out positive for some form of cancer. However, he observed that more health-conscious people are getting themselves screened.

“So, our first job then, lets get more people to come and get screened and perhaps if we run that national campaign to get people to get screened, we will see more outcomes but not just a national campaign we should have these regional campaigns that target people in those regions so that we could bring them to get screen,” the Health Minister said.

Dr. Anthony said persons should not be afraid to get screened since a cancer diagnosis is not the end of the road, but should be seen as the beginning of the journey towards recovery.

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