Cancer screening vital: Dadae

National

Mouth, breast and cervical cancers have been identified as the biggest cancer killers in Papua New Guinea and it is important people go for screening for early detection to save lives, health educator Dr Sonia Dadae says.
Dadae said this while speaking to participants of a cancer awareness workshop at the Royal Papua Yacht Club yesterday by Cancer Foundation PNG (CFPNG) in partnership with JM Ocean Avenue.
Dadae facilitated the workshop, focusing on mouth, breast and cervical cancers, their signs and symptoms, with emphasis on the importance of prevention through early screening methods and diagnosis while identifying risk factors and minimising them where possible.
Dadae said there was a general increase in cancer affecting people in Papua New Guinea and described these cancers as silent killers that have increased with the change in people’s lifestyles.
Major risk factors identified were excessive chewing of betel nuts, consumption of alcohol, smoking and unhealthy food choices.
Dadae urged participants to reduce risk factors as much as possible by making the right choices as what was put into the body would affect the body.
Cancer Foundation PNG chief executive Dadi Toka Jr thanked participants for taking the time to come and learn more about the types of cancers.
Toka said that one of the focuses of Cancer Foundation PNG was to ensure that cancer was talked about in the open and not for it to become a stigma.
Kone Fisher, a student from the University of Papua New Guinea who attended the workshop, said the session was “very informative” and she learned many new things including how some of the cancers were formed.
She said she would encourage her friends to go for early screening as cancer was “very frightening” and was silently killing many people.