Awareness of Breast Cancer and Screening Programmes in Ilorin.kwara State, Nigeria

Breast cancers are malignant tumours of the breast that are exceedingly common all over the world. It has been estimated that 1 in 10 women develops the disease in her life-time1. In Nigeria, breast cancer is the commonest cancer among the females2. The importance of awareness of breast cancer, provision of its screening modalities and programmes cannot be over – emphasized. The present study was a questionnaire – based survey to investigate the incidence, awareness and screening programmes of breast cancer in Ilorin (and its environs) in Kwara state of Nigeria. The study also investigated the level of participation of women at risk in the available screening programmes. A prospective study of a population in Ilorin Emirate area, Kwara State of Nigeria, comprising of two hundred and fifty - five (255) adults with their age ranging between 15 and 70 years. They consisted of forty – nine (49) males and two hundred and six (206) female was conducted. Well – designed closed - structured questionnaires were administered to consented adults; case records of breast cancer patients were also collected from the Department of Pathology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (U.I.T.H.), Ilorin, Nigeria. These were studied to determine the incidence. The results obtained were subjected to statistical analysis; it was discovered that 83.9% of the participants knew something about breast cancer; while only 73.3% thereof knew about its screening programmes. The prevalence of breast cancer was higher in patient aged between 55 and 64 years. It could therefore be concluded that the level of awareness of breast cancer and the available screening programmes was high among the study population, at risk, in Ilorin Emirate area of Kwara State, Nigeria

Key Words: Level of Awareness; Incidence of Breast cancer; Screening programmes; Ilorin and its environs