The Oscar-Lambret center in Lille is launching a major awareness campaign for women. Reference center in the treatment of cancer, the “COL” has been communicating, since mid-June, around a slogan: “we all have a good reason to follow up on gynecology“.
Women’s cancers – of the breast, ovaries, uterus, endometrium – affect 75,000 women per year in France. In Hauts-de-France, cancer mortality is the highest in the country: 10 to 20% higher than the national average. This awareness campaign involvesinformation and some pedagogy on the internet and social networks, and by challenges to be done between women, for improve screening.
40% of women never have a mammogram
Today, half of women never do a Pap smear. Four in ten women never have a mammogram. But if they are detected early, 90% of female cancers can be cured. Dephine Hudry, surgeon-gynecologist-oncologist at the Oscar-Lambret center, realizes when seeing patients arriving, that the message is difficult to get across: “these are often advanced stages, and women who have not had a visit, for a complete gynecological examination, in the 10 or 20 years which preceded. Screening is effective, it must absolutely fit into the habits of women“The rule is simple: annual monitoring to a gynecologist, a general practitioner or a midwife.
Proof of the effectiveness of this follow-up with Sabrina Durieux. This resident of Oignies is 39 years old. Mother died at age 45 of ovarian cancer. She started getting tested very early, a test necessary for her because she was carrying a gene that increased the risks: “it was a great anguish, a sword of Damocles above the head“.
Get tested, don’t wait
This surveillance led her to have surgery: removal of breasts and ovaries. Today the fear of cancer is behind her, and she has a message for all women who don’t get tested: “especially go regularly to be tested, do not wait. It can happen to anyone, it should not be taken lightly. Today, I am serene, I want to enjoy life, and if I can be an example, that’s good“.
LEARN MORE: the Oscar-Lambret Center website
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