President Arif Alvi’s wife, Begum Samina Alvi said on Wednesday that one in nine women in Pakistan is facing the risk of breast cancer and stressed early diagnosis as the best way to recovery.

Addressing a breast cancer awareness event at Health Services Academy in Islamabad, Begum Alvi said 90,000 to 100,000 women in Pakistan suffered breast cancer every year and expressed concern that the survival rate of the country touched 50 percent compared to 80 percent in the developed world.

Begum Alvi pointed out that late diagnosis of breast cancer resulted in an increased mortality rate and also led to high costs of treatment.

She mentioned the breast cancer awareness campaign launched from the platform of the Presidency for the last four years, which she said, helped in educating a large number of the population.

In this regard, she said programmes through television, radio, newspapers, and social media were conducted for mass awareness about breast cancer.

She said in 13 hospitals in Sindh, eight in Punjab, three in Islamabad, five in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and three in Balochistan were providing free-of-cost mammography facilities.

 Begum Alvi said according to the estimates by Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, the number of patients suffering from breast cancer doubled in the country.

She advised women to practice self-examination every month to rule out any chances of breast cancer.

She said although breast cancer was common in women, however, in a few cases, men with a family history of breast cancer could also suffer from the disease.

Dr Usman Qureshi said according to international research, a delay of four weeks raised the risk of breast cancer by 10 percent.

He emphasized streamlining the process from the detection of breast cancer to its treatment at a fast pace to prevent further growth of cancer cells.

Head of the Radiology Department and Federal Breast Screening Centre at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Dr Ayesha Ehsani Majeed said every woman over 40 should visit the doctor for mammography.

She said the media played an important role in educating the masses about breast cancer and mentioned that at her screening centre, 39 persons visited for scanning in 2015 while the number increased to 3,000 in 2021.