Power of touch: blind women helping to detect breast cancer in India
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed (non-skin) cancer worldwide. In India, it is the leading cause of death from cancer among women, but 60% of cases are diagnosed at stage three or four of the disease, resulting in a significant reduction in survival rates.
Blind women in India are being trained to do this type of examination; and may be better at it, than women doing self-examination themselves.
As reported in here the Guardian recently, they are being trained to become Medical Tactile Examiners (MTE) and contribute to the mass screening of women; in the hope that this will reduce mortality in the long-term. They use a Tactile Breast Examination (TBE) screening technique that uses the highly developed sensory skills of visually impaired women for manual breast health screening.
MTEs are a useful tool in the fight to change that picture says Dr Poovamma CU, a surgical oncologist at Cytecare, a hospital in Bengaluru that employs two of the women.
Women are uncomfortable about doing breast self-examinations and often don’t realise there’s a lump in their breast until it has grown to 4cm or 5cm,” she says.
“Routine breast cancer screenings by MTEs in urban and rural communities and workplaces, where mammograms and ultrasound machines cannot reach, can make a significant impact in India, where robust government-run screening programmes don’t exist.”
This is a pilot study of MTEs, favourably comparing them to physicians
