Choose proper treatment over “bush medicine” – Cancer Institute

…negligence, misinformation among biggest hurdles in fight against cancer, says Director

Director of Outreach at the Cancer Institute of Guyana, Dr Syed Ghazi, is urging women battling breast cancer to prioritise proper medical treatment, including chemotherapy, over unproven “bush medicine” and misinformation circulating in communities.

In the most recent broadcast of the Starting Point podcast, he warned that negligence, denial, and misguided traditional advice are among the leading causes of preventable deaths in Guyana, despite major advancements in cancer treatment and awareness.
Dr Ghazi said that while Guyana has made tremendous progress in cancer care – moving from limited resources to now offering advanced diagnostic and treatment options such as mammograms, CT scans, and radiation therapy – many patients still present themselves late due to fear, stigma, or reliance on unscientific remedies.
“You know, a breast biopsy is done by the stroke, like a thick needle, and we take a thin little tissue out. We numb the area and put the needle there. But then what happens? She goes home, and the neighbour comes and says, ‘…Hey, don’t do the biopsy.  It spreads it’, you know, or somebody comes and says, ‘No, no, no, no, no, don’t go to this treatment. You know, they will give you chemotherapy and stuff. I know this bush doctor, and he or she treats your breast cancer and/or does the fasting’, you know; food fasting, vegetable fasting, whatever.”
“These treatments are developed after spending millions of dollars or, you know, whatever kind of money on research; thousands and thousands of hours of research and studies are spent. And then comes the treatment where we know what kind of receptors are there.  You know, it’s advanced now. We know what kind of receptors are there and what kind of chemotherapy should be used to kill those cancer cells. And cancer cells, by the way, when people say chemotherapy kills normal cells and radiation kills normal cells, that’s not true. They only target the DNA because cancer is a disease of sick DNA,” the director explained.
The Cancer Institute of Guyana was the first in the Caribbean to offer radiation therapy. Today, the facility continues to expand, with plans to introduce brachytherapy, a highly effective internal radiation treatment particularly beneficial for cervical cancer.
Dr Ghazi revealed that the institute is collaborating with the Government to further expand oncology services, including plans for a national cancer hospital.
However, despite growing awareness, he noted that misinformation remains a serious challenge.
“Still, there’s a long way to go, a long way to go. The Cancer Institute had radiation, but we are trying to get a brachytherapy unit, which is internal radiation, which we don’t have, and patients go to Suriname and other countries, you know, and spend millions of dollars. The Government helps the patients and subsidises it. It’s costing a lot of money. So recently the Cancer Institute made a contract, and soon we are going to have brachytherapy. We are trying to raise funds for that. It’s kind of US$200,000, something like that… In a meeting a few months ago with the president, I found him also very interested. He’s passionate about treating those patients who are suffering. I think they’re working on an oncology hospital also. So, it is going to be a good milestone soon when we will have not one but maybe multiple institutions trying to treat cancer patients,” Dr Ghazi said.
Dr Ghazi also highlighted that breast cancer is more common in women who have no children or who are on hormone replacement therapy.
According to Dr Ghazi, early detection remains the most powerful weapon against cancer.
“So, when people say cancer is not curable, I would confront them and say, ‘No, cancer is curable. The only thing is if you detect it early; it’s the same thing with breast cancer. If you detect breast cancer early, you know, it’s curable. I mean, you can find the mass or lump before it spreads into your armpits or anywhere you do the – whatever surgery you have to do – and lumpectomy or whatever, according to the patient case, you’re cancer-free. How many hundreds of survivors look at that point also? And when you say the number is increasing, tell me how many survivors there are now. They’re a hundred times more than what they used to be years ago,” he added.