CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
Breast cancer (BCa) is a malignant tumour that has developed from breast cells, which has no cure at present. However, it can be managed with modern technological tools, and one’s life can be prolonged. In the last four decades, with the introduction of screening programmes that efficiently detect cervical cancer in its early stage, BCa has been seen to overtake cervical cancer in incidence and has become number one neoplasm among women (Okolie, 2012). BCa has therefore become a worldwide major health problem. The vast majority of it occur invasively in women (National Cancer Society [NCS], 2013). It accounts for 16% of all female cancers, and 22% of it are invasive. In both men and women, it accounts for 18.2% of all cancer deaths (NCS, 2013). Adebamowo and Ajayi (2006) corroborate the opinion of NCS and maintain that BCa is the commonest cancer among women in the world and in Nigeria too.
Adebamowo and Ajayi (2006) opine that it has become the commonest malignancy affecting Nigerian women. Also, according to Smeltzer, Bare, Hinkle and Cheever (2010), among the ten leading types of cancers by gender determined on the basis of estimated new cases and deaths in the United States in 2004, BCa accounts for 32% and the highest in female while prostate cancer accounts for 33% in males, which is the highest among them. Some of its common threats to physical wellbeing according to Adejumo and Adejumo (2009) include effects of treatments, recurrence and metastasis, fatigue, arm and shoulder discomfort, as well as lymphedema.
Unfortunately, Nigeria (which is the home country of the reverend sisters that are the focus of this study) remains ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of cancer detection and care as the testing and care facilities are still very few. The prevalence of BCa within the country is 116 per 100,000, and 27,840 new cases were expected to develop in 1999 (Adebamowo & Ajayi, 2006). In 2005, between 7 and 10,000 new cases of BCa developed.
This increasing incidence of BCa in Nigeria is in line with the situations in other developing countries, and even those advanced countries that used to have a low incidence now record high incidence. The relative frequencies of BCa among other female cancers, from Cancer Registries in Nigeria were 35.3% in Ibadan, 28.2% in Ife-Ijesha, 44.5% in Enugu, 17% in Eruwa, 37.5% in Lagos, 20.5% in Zaria and 29.8% in Calabar (Banjo, 2004 ). Similarly, in all the centres, except Calabar and Eruwa, BCa rated first among other cancers.
Further reports showed that majority of cases occurred in premenopausal women, and the mean age of occurrence ranged between 43–50 years across the regions. The youngest age recorded was 16 years, from Lagos (Banjo, 2004). This trend was attributed to several factors such as: the acceptance of fine needle aspiration as an accurate diagnostic evaluation, and increased awareness about BCa and usefulness of breast self-examination (Thomas, 2000).
Several other factors are responsible for this increasing detection, but the most important in the researcher’s view are: increased access to diagnostic facilities;empowerment of women, which is increasing women's ability to make independent decisions about their own health-care; increasing westernization of dietary products;and physical activity; obstetric and gynaecological factors among others. Conventionally, breast self-examination (BSE) is the easiest and simplest procedure for detecting breast masses because a woman who knows the texture, contour, and feel of her own breasts is far more likely to detect changes that may develop (ACS, 2007).
The above notwithstanding, the American Cancer Society (2010) made the following recommendations: monthly self breast examination (SBE) beginning at the age of 20, from the fifth day of the menstrual cycle to one week following menstruation; clinical breast examination every three (3) years, from age 20 to 40, then annually, beginning at age 40; and mammogram, at age 40, and above annually. Adejumo and Adejumo (2009) recommend that in addition to the above promotive health behaviours, needle aspiration may be performed when ultrasound reveals a suspicious lesion. The researchers advanced that imaging techniques offer new and emerging technologies that aid diagnosis of the disease at its rudimentary stage.
| Project details | Contents |
|---|---|
| Number of Pages | 124 pages |
| Chapter one | Introduction |
| Chapter two | Literature review |
| Chapter three | methodology |
| Chapter four | Data analysis |
| Chapter five | Summary,discussion & recommendations |
| Reference | Reference |
| Questionnaire | Questionnaire |
| Appendix | Appendix |
| Chapter summary | 1 to 5 chapters |
| Available document | PDF and MS-word format |
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