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Breast Cancer Screening

and Early Diagnosis Awareness

Project Purpose

To promote and encourage women to regularly screen for breast cancer and to help identify any cases to help them start treatment at an earlier stage when it is treatable.

Breast Cancer remains the leading cause of cancer in women in Kenya with more 50 percent of the cases presenting in women below the age of 50. This places their families and the economy at a great disadvantage.
Every year approximately 4,500 patients are diagnosed with the disease and 2,000 patients lose their lives to this disease. This burden reflects an increasing trend in the number of women being diagnosed with the disease. Early diagnosis and treatment could greatly reduce the burden of breast cancer and improve treatment outcomes.

Project’s Aim

To create awareness among grassroots communities on the need for early screening of breast cancer as a strategy to mitigate the associated high morbidity and mortality rates among rural women in Bungoma County in Kenya.
Objectives:
a) Screen 1400 women in western Kenya Bungoma County for breast cancer free of charge – Bungoma is a leading county in Breast Cancer cases in Kenya.
b) Create awareness among women of Bungoma County on the need for early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

Problem

Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer in incidence both globally and in Kenya is highlighted; with late diagnosis being the current scenario as about 68% of all breast cancer cases in Kenya are diagnosed in advanced stages.

Breast Cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality among women in Kenya. According to the 2015 Kenya Stepwise Survey of Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factors Report, the situation is not different in Kenya, as breast cancer is the most common cancer (34 per 100,000), accounting for 23% of all cancers of women.

The Screening rate for breast cancer is about 5% in Kenya making it difficult for early detection among the majority of Kenyan women. Considering the low usage rate, it is critical to understand factors associated with women’s uptake of breast cancer screening at the grassroots level.

Educational attainment is considered an important predictor of women’s use of formal and preventive health care services including cancer screening, given its role in knowledge provision on health and its related behaviors.

While the national-level program advocates for education and mass screening activities at the community level, breast cancer screening rate for women has unfortunately remained low in Kenya.

In western Kenya Bungoma county factors like high ignorance rates, low educational levels, high poverty levels and general lack of awareness among the women continues to be a great hindrance to early diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer.