Trauma

Breast cancer has recently overtaken carcinoma of the cervix as the leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in Nigerian women.1 The incidence may be much lower than in developed countries, but mortality from the disease contin-ues to be a source of concern. The average lifespan of a diag-nosed breast cancer patient in Nigeria has been estimated to range between 9.5 and 30 months. Orthodox medical treat-ment is commenced in most of these patients at an advanced stage of the disease2-5 because of a higher proportion of aggressive breast cancer variants, lack of organised screening and breast cancer control programmes, and delays in diagno-sis and treatment.2-6 Studies from developed countries have shown that delay between onset of symptoms and treatment of breast cancer results in disease progression and a detrimental effect on sur