KARACHI: Pakistan has the highest prevalence of breast cancer in Asia and about 60 per cent cancer patients at the Shaulcat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre come from the Fata region, said an expert while delivering a lecture on breast cancer awareness at Karachi University on Thursday.

The lecture was organised by the university`s medical clinic in collaboration with the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust.

Dr Esha Saqib of the Shaukat Khanum hospital said that often progression of breast cancer was associated with genes and women who inherited cancer genes were at a much higher risk of developing breast cancer that could occur at a young age.

A primary female sex hormone, estrogen, she said, was responsible for development and regulation of female reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics.

`Women who are overexposed to estrogen due to early periods, late menopause or late childbirth, may be at a relatively increased risk of breast cancer. Post menopausal women who take hormone replacement therapy have also been shown to have an increased chance of breast cancer,` she said.

Once a woman stopped taking hormone replacement therapy, her risk of developing breast cancer decreased.

`Besides, women who gain weight especially with increased waist circumference, around the age of menopause, has been shown to have increased chance of breast cancer and breast cancer related death,` she said.

Talking about the symptoms, she said that some changes that could be due to breast cancer were a lump or thickening in an area of the breast, a change in the size or shape of a breast, dimpling of the skin or its discolouration, an eczema like rash or ulcer over the breast and swelling or a lump in the armpit.

These signs, she pointed out, didn`t necessarily meant one had cancer but if someone noticed any such changes, a thorough medical check-up was required, she said.

According to Dr Esha, there are several treatment modalities for a breast cancer patient, including surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and targeted therapy.

She clarified that breast cancer was not caused by the use of microwave, caffeine, and use of cell phone and deodorant. The disease was not communicable, she said.

`The causes of breast cancer aren`t fully understood.

However, there are risk factors that are known to affect women, including alcohol, smoking, radiation, overweight, family history, age and exposure to estrogen, she said.

Atika Batool representing the same hospital said that this was unfortunate that Pakistan had the highest prevalence of breast cancer in Asia and there was a dire need to educate women on this subject.

The second Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, she said, was being set up in Peshawar as about 60 per cent cases of cancer came from the Fata region at the hospital.

KU dean pharmacy Dr Ghazala Rizwani said that environmental pollution, physiological and socioeconomic factors caused breast cancer all over the world.