Few public health facilities offering mammograms

There is a dearth of public health facilities in Jamaica that offer mammography screenings for breast cancer.

The revelation was made recently by chair of Jamaica Reach to Recovery, the outreach arm of the Jamaica Cancer Society (JCS), Carolind Graham.

She was speaking during an outside broadcast of ‘Miss Kitty Live’ on Nationwide Radio for the second in a series of #JNPowerofPink conversations titled ‘Beyond Breast Cancer: Survival Stories’, organised by The Jamaica National Group. The event was held at the Spa Aesthetique in Liguanea, St Andrew.

Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among Jamaican women, and it is estimated that one in 21 women in the country will be diagnosed with the disease.

According to the Global Cancer Observatory (Globocan), there were 974 breast cancer cases in Jamaica last year and 413 deaths from the disease.

“Screening is available at the Cancer Society,” Graham said. “It is also available in the public health sector at Cornwall Regional, and The University Hospital recently installed a mammography machine. That’s wonderful; however, all other mammography-screening systems are privately owned. As a result, the price is based on their own decisions,” she said.

The Reach to Recovery chair, who is also a survivor, said that the lack of facilities to offer mammograms does not only make it physically difficult for women to access screening but also makes accessing the test a financial burden as it should be done annually, especially for women 40 years and over, who are more at risk.

She pointed out that mammograms cost $4,000 at the JCS, which is located in St Andrew, but that medical practitioners indicate that it can cost upwards of $10,000 in private facilities.

“Breast cancer is not an inexpensive matter. As a matter of fact, I would say it’s a very expensive matter and it can bankrupt families,” she emphasised, pointing out that screening is only the first step, particularly for those who are diagnosed.

“So you need to do a biopsy, and you do the biopsy and you discover that you have cancer. Now breast cancer is like mangoes: you have hairy mango, Julie mango, and East Indian mango. So you have different types of breast cancers, which respond to different treatments,” she explained, noting that depending on the treatment, patients could be looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars per dose or procedure.

“When you get to something like Herceptin, Her2+, which is a particular type of breast cancer, now you’re looking at maybe $250,000 per treatment, and you maybe need 14 treatments, so you’re looking at millions of dollars,” Graham outlined.

Radiotherapy

A person could then be required to do radiotherapy. She said that treatment is available through the government health system at the St Joseph’s Hospital in Kingston and the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James but that persons who opt to do radiotherapy privately may be looking at more than $1 million for their treatment.

“Now, who has that kind of money sitting down? Nobody! Therefore, women who are diagnosed with breast cancer are facing really a life sentence because it takes cash to care, particularly with this disease,” she emphasised.

Janice Robinson Longmore, chief of operations at JN Bank, pointed out that beyond its advocacy and fundraising efforts to support the JCS and Jamaica Reach to Recovery, the JN Group, through its life insurance member company, JN Life Insurance, provides its policyholders with a reoccurrence benefit under its critical illness plan, once the additional claim is outside of the waiting period.

“The needs are real,” Longmore concluded, acknowledging the high cost of treating breast cancer.