Closer Collaboration Needed to Help Reduce Deaths Due to Cancer – JCS Head

With US$40 million (J$4.65 billion) being spent annually to treat cancer patients in Jamaica,  Executive Director of the Jamaica Cancer Society (JCS), Yulit Gordon, is urging healthcare providers, academia, corporate organizations and individuals to work closer together to help reduce premature deaths, due to cancer.

A 2008 report showed that the most prevalent types of cancers in Jamaica were: prostate, with 78.1 per 100,000 men; breast, 43.1 per 100,000; cervical, 17.4 per 100,000 women; and colon, 17.2 per 100,000 persons.

As Jamaica prepares to join the rest of the world in observing World Cancer Day on Wednesday, February 4, Mrs. Gordon told JIS News that this year’s theme is: ‘Not Beyond Us’,  with a sub theme: ‘Healthy Lifestyle Choices, Early Detection, Treatment for All and Quality of Life’ .

Mrs. Gordon said the theme and sub theme are to remind persons that cancer is not a death sentence.

She pointed out that there are some important goals that, as a country, “we must achieve in order to bring about positive outcomes.”  These include easy access to screening for those cancers that are preventable; public health messages that cover all persons; and eliminating risk factors that contribute to the disease, such as tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, alcohol consumption and obesity.

In observance of the Day, the JCS will give talks and offer a five per cent discount on all cancer screening at its office, located at 16 Lady Musgrave Road, in Kingston.

There will also be outreach activities at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, where members of the public will be provided with  information on cervical and prostate cancers;  and at the Police Academy in Twickenham Park,  St. Catherine, where  screening for prostate cancer will be offered.

On Thursday, February 5, at the HEART Runaway Hospitality School and the Moon Palace Hotel, both in St. Ann, members of the St. Mary and St. Ann branch of the jcs will offer educational talks on cancer.

“With increased information available about the disease, the JCS is encouraging every Jamaican, who is eligible, to get screening. One third of all cancers are preventable through screening and proper lifestyle management,” Mrs. Gordon said.

Screening for breast and prostate cancers begins at age 40 and should be done annually, while the screening for cervical cancer starts at age 21.