"Most survivors in our country are not ready to share their stories and often the stories people get to hear of are those about patients who have died from breast cancer and these make them believe that no one can survive this cancer," she said.

Dr Dedey said the story from survivors would be more convincing to a patient than what a health professional may say.

Addressing stakeholders at a durbar to mark this year's breast cancer awareness month, organized by AngloGold Ashanti (Iduapriem) Limited, the President said survivors of breast cancer helped to make positive impacts on society.

 "This goes a long way to motivate new patients through the difficult path that they have to trend, so they would also become survivors to also inspire others," she said.

She emphasized that there was significant evidence to show that when breast cancer was diagnosed early and treated effectively, the outcomes were very good with survival rates close to 100 per cent, achieved.

"The most effective way to achieve this is the use of x-rays of the breast, also known as mammograms, and regular clinical breast examination by qualified health personnel or self-breast examination by the individual. If these examination are done on routine basis that would reveal any abnormalities even before they show up physically in the breast," she explained.

"For these early stages, treatment turns to be less radical. Instead of a woman having to lose her breast through surgery, she may be treated equally effectively by having just the abnormal portion of the breast removed while preserving the rest of it".

Similarly, Dr Dedey said, there were other forms of treatment such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which may not be needed when treatment was done early.

"So generally early treatment is beneficial not only by its good outcomes, but also more acceptable treatment options with cosmetically pleasing outcomes usually at less cost than treatment for the advanced stages".

She advised men and women to adopt healthy lifestyles such as regular exercise, avoiding obesity, alcoholism and excessive smoking as these were known to increase the chances of having breast cancer.

Dr Dedey called on institutions to include breast cancer awareness programmes and support patients in their corporate social responsibilities.

"We must not sit unconcerned while women in the prime of their lives are taken away from their families and loved ones when many of these deaths could be prevented".