AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company, has launched a new drug for the treatment of breast cancer in the country.
The drug, Faslodex, is used for the treatment of hormone-sensitive and advanced breast cancers in postmenopausal women.
At the launch last Thursday in Accra, a specialist physician and medical oncologist from South Africa, Dr Shun Moodley, stated that the drug was a specialised medication for the treatment of stage four breast cancer — the type that had spread to other parts of the body, most commonly the liver, brain, bones or lungs.
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He said at that stage, cancer cells could break away from the original tumour in the breast and travel to other parts of the body through the bloodstream or the lymphatic system.
Dr Moodley said that was very common in Africa because women who were infected with the disease do not present the ailment at its early stage but rather wait till the disease had reached a stage where it could no longer be cured.
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“When that happens it calls for urgent treatment, and this drug is perfect for such treatment. Women who are treated with the drug live longer as compared to those who don’t use it,” he said.
Dr Moodley encouraged women with advanced breast cancer cases to utilise the opportunity and use the drug, indicating that it was the first time the drug was entering Africa, and Ghana was the first country to have it.
source: Graphic Online
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