QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – After five years and four months’ treatment Journey with breast cancer, Dijla, a pseudonym, was finally recovered.
The 46-year-old woman, from the city of Qamishli, northeastern Syria, undergoes regular checkups each six months and sends them to her doctor in Damascus to check on her health condition.
Dijla said that as soon as she felt that there is a small lump in her right breast, she visited a doctor, who in turn requested a mammography to find out that she had breast cancer.
Her inquiry about that lump helped her to save her life, as she had a mastectomy and received Chemotherapy.
World Health Organization (WHO), in a report, said, “Breast cancer treatment can be highly effective, especially when the disease is identified early.”
“It is important that women finding an abnormal lump in the breast consult a health practitioner without a delay of more than 1-2 months even when there is no pain associated with it. Seeking medical attention at the first sign of a potential symptom allows for more successful treatment,” the WHO added.
Based on her experience with the disease, Dijla said that positive thinking, determination and strength contribute in alleviating the psychological trauma caused by the disease.
“When I was travelling to Damascus to receive treatment, I never thought about the disease, on the contrary, I used to think positively to alleviate tension. With determination and strength, I defeated the disease,” she added.
The Pink Month
In October, some organizations and associations carry out annual campaigns to increase awareness about breast cancer.
Since the beginning of the month, Nextep, a local organization, have carried out an electronic campaign to raise women’s awareness about the seriousness of the disease and the importance of conducting regular checkups.
Nextep is a non-governmental and non-profit organization established in 2021 active in the areas in northern and eastern Syria, and it aims at reaching a peaceful, developing society that believes in change and strives for it.
Arya Haji, Advocacy, Media and Communication Officer of Nextep, said the campaign includes an introduction to centers, methods, means and stages of examination according to ages.
Women are the most targeted in the campaign that is scheduled to continue till the end of October.
Despite the lack of accurate statistics of recorded cases in northeastern Syria for this year, doctors told North Press that breast cancer cases are increasing year after year.
Since the beginning of 2022, 1.292 women have undergone examinations to detect the disease, 27 of whom were found to have it, according to a center affiliated to Kurdish Red Crescent in Qamishli.
Most of the cases are detected after reviewing doctors at private clinics, and conducting examinations in Damascus.
Alan Khalaf, a specialist in solid tumors and chemotherapy in Qamishli and works at Biruni Hospital in Damascus, diagnosed 40 confirmed cases of the disease during the last five months of this year in his clinic, after requesting the needed examinations.
Generally, symptoms of breast cancer include, “a breast lump or thickening, alteration in size, shape or appearance of a breast, dimpling, redness, pitting or other alteration in the skin, change in nipple appearance or alteration in the skin surrounding the nipple (areola); and/or, and abnormal nipple discharge,” according to the WHO.
In case one of these symptoms appears, the patient should immediately consult a doctor, as the chances of surviving the disease during early detection are high.
Breast cancer is a wide spectrum of diseases, and that determines the histological type of the tumor, the degree of the tumor and its stage, as it is divided into four stages, and the risk increases with each advanced stage, according to Khalaf.
However, chemotherapy did not succeed in saving Munira Rasoul’s mother who detected the disease at its late stage.
The 45-year-old Rasoul, from Qamishli, said that her 62-year-old mother detected that she had breast cancer seven years ago, and she went through mastectomy in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
Two years later, Ali’s condition worsened again. After a doctor’s review, it became clear that the lumps appeared again, and she began receiving treatment in Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI), but the spread of the disease in her body led to her death.