Head of the Mammography Unit at the University Hospital of the West

Indies, Dr Derria Cornwall, is arguing that Jamaicans’ failure to get tested

has resulted in 70 per cent of breast cancer diagnoses being done late.

Cornwall, speaking on Tuesday at the Universal Service Fund’s forum

Positively Pink at the PCJ Auditorium in New Kingston, St Andrew, implored

Jamaican women to get tested to reduce the risks associated with the disease.

Using actual mammogram photographs to strengthen her position, Cornwall

said once women reach 40 years old, they should start doing their mammography

regularly and at 30 years old if there is a family history of cancer.

She said that with the cancer gene, women should start doing their

mammography 10 years earlier than when the last person in the family was

diagnosed with the disease.

While women should conduct their own breast examination, Cornwall said that those within the risk age should also get the mammogram done to get expert advice.

“The mammogram is the tool we use to detect breast cancers early. Some

cancers start by looking like grains of salt. If it is that you sprinkle some

grains of salts in your breast and try to feel them, no you won’t,” Cornwall said.

“When it is looking like grains of salt, the only thing that can pick

those up is the mammogram. If you wait until it becomes a lump and go and get

the mammograms done, we will not be looking at that lump again. We are doing

the mammogram to look at the rest of the breast to see that nothing else is

hiding.”

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According to Cornwall, the Jamaican statistic of 43 out of every 100,000

being afflicted might be understated, as she said that the study was done only

in Kingston.

She argues that when a similar study is done in rural Jamaica, it might

bring the statistics closer to the global level of one in eight women being

diagnosed with breast cancer.