NGOs urged to drive cancer screenings as uptake remains low

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Wednesday called on nonGovernmental organisations (NGOs) to drive greater public awareness about the need for Guyanese to test for various cancers.

He made the call during the launch of Pinktober 2026, an annual, month-long observance held every October to raise awareness about cancers across the country.

Speaking during the launch, Dr Anthony lamented that while a number of Government programmes are in place to assist the population, participation remains low.

“Over the last couple of years, I think we’re doing much better in terms of what we’ve been doing to diagnose cancer patients and, of course, in how we treat cancer patients, and we’ve put a lot of programmes together, but sometimes, unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of people buying into the programmes,” he said.

According to Dr Anthony, the top cancers in Guyana are prostate, followed by breast cancer, cervical cancer and colorectal cancer.

Combined, they account for 46 per cent of the 704 cancer diagnoses this year.

Regarding breast cancer, Dr Anthony spoke about the strides made in detecting and treating this disease, noting that ten years ago, there was about one mammography machine in the country.

“We now have at least seven mammography machines…in the public sector, you have at Georgetown Hospital, you have one at Suddie on the Essequibo coast, you have one in Linden, you have one at New Amsterdam, and we’ve put one as far away as in Lethem so that people can have access, persons from those regions, and of course, you have mammograms in the private sector,” he outlined.

But despite these investments, he said not many persons are getting screened.

“As of from January to now, we only did 1667 mammograms with all of this new facility we’ve put in place; we’ve only done 1667 mammograms. Why is that? Before, when we didn’t have the machines, the problem was, ‘Okay, we didn’t have enough machines; people didn’t have access.’ Now we’ve opened up access, but people are not coming. So, I think the first challenge that we have [is] how do we change that, how do we get more people to come so that they can get themselves screened?” the Health Minister said.

“If we can use the existing facilities so that more people can get screened, I think we can start; we’ll have a better chance of preventing some of these things from happening,” he added.

Of those screened so far for breast cancer, the Health Minister said 6.4 per cent were positive. Nonetheless, he emphasised that early detection results in prompt treatment, which is available in Guyana.

“When somebody is positive, it’s not like the end of the road. Now you start a journey, and we have that journey outlined, and what would be the next step?” he said.

Modern pathology labs

He noted that Guyana has one of the most modern pathology labs in the Caribbean and can do differentials for breast cancer, and if a second opinion is needed, those slides can be sent using telepathology to the Government’s partner in the United States, Mount Sinai, to do a second reading.

While these procedures are costly, Dr Anthony said they are offered free of cost to citizens.

Meanwhile, he noted that another big challenge is the low participation in programmes to address cervical cancer, which is preventable.

“Up to about two years ago, we were using a vaccine that targets four strains of this virus, the more prevalent strains, and that is the type of vaccine that most countries use; it’s cheap and it’s effective, but it doesn’t cover all of the strains. The latest vaccine that is on the market, it targets nine of the most prevalent strains of the human papillomavirus. The cost of one dose of that vaccine is US$360… As of two years ago, the Government of Guyana has implemented a vaccination programme using the 9-valent vaccine; that is, every time you give a child a dose, we’re actually putting US$360 into their arms. We have made it free here,” he highlighted.

The Health Minister noted that coverage for this vaccine used to be about 16 per cent for children between the ages of nine and 15, but now, it has increased to almost 70 per cent. But he stressed that more needs to be done.

“The job is not finished as yet because we need, according to the WHO, we need to take that up to 90 per cent…so that every child literally, between the ages of nine and 15, boys and girls, we need to vaccinate them,” he said.

“That is the second challenge that we should give ourselves: let us get more people vaccinated, more of the children vaccinated,” he added.

The Health Minister explained that boys need vaccinations too because they can get penile cancer.

Meanwhile, he noted that once coverage reaches 90 per cent, this needs to be maintained for a number of years, and then Guyana would be on the way to eliminating cervical cancer.

Beyond that target, he noted that the Government has opened the programme to include women from the age of 16 to 45.

Another programme to deal with cervical cancer is the $8000 voucher initiative for tests. Since the programme started a few years ago, Dr Anthony said approximately 24,000 tests were done, of which some 4000 persons tested positive.

Like with breast cancer, he stressed that there are guidelines on how to treat persons who tested positive.

“It’s good to know; once you know, you can take action. If you don’t know, then you might be waiting, and then it gets very complicated,” he emphasised, adding that “we want to encourage people, use the vouchers; we have literally thousands of vouchers to give to people to use.”

On prostate cancer, the Minister said there is no specific test, but men can conduct a prostate-specific antigen test (PSA), and if there is a high reading, it might indicate a problem. He encouraged men to utilise the universal health voucher of $10,000 to get these tests done.

For those with high results, a biopsy is then done, and if there are changes in the prostate, then the requisite steps are taken.

Dr Anthony said from January to now, 137 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed.

Against this backdrop, he emphasised the need for more screening and encouraged NGOs to assist.

“Use your network to get these vouchers out to people. Let’s get more people doing the HPV screening, and we can make the vouchers available to you. We want more children to be vaccinated…the vaccines are in every health centre across this country…what we need to do is to get people to go to the health centres to get the vaccines, and then men, even if they don’t come to us, get the voucher and give it to them and let them go to any one of the private institutions, and they can get screened,” Dr Anthony urged.

Meanwhile, when it comes to colorectal cancer, he said, from January to now, 43 persons were diagnosed.

The Health Minister said the Government will soon start a programme to offer colonoscopies at the six regional hospitals.

“We need people to know that these services exist, and we need people to come earlier so they can get the check-ups because if you pick up things earlier, it is easier to deal with it; when you have complications, it’s a whole new, different challenge that we have,” he emphasised.