ISLAMABAD: In June 2013, diplomat Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry was about to address a seminar in Islamabad when he received a telephone call he had been expecting, and dreading, for weeks.
“It’s cancer,” the doctor on the other end of the line told him. Chaudhry — who at the time was the spokesperson for the Foreign Office and a few months later would become foreign secretary, the most senior diplomatic role in Pakistan — delivered his lecture as planned. When it was finished, the then 55-year-old went to the hospital and received an unexpected diagnosis: he had breast cancer.
The vast majority of breast cancer patients are women; globally, less than one percent of all cases are in men.
Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer in Asia, according to figures from the Pakistan Medical Association. Each year, about 90,000 cases are diagnosed and the disease kills 40,000 people. One Pakistani woman in nine is likely to be affected during her life, but early diagnosis and treatment can raise the survival rate as high as 90 percent.
It is for this reason that Chaudhry, who is now retired from diplomatic service and is director-general of Islamabad’s prestigious Institute of Strategic Studies (ISSI), decided to become an advocate for breast cancer awareness and the importance of early detection.
“I decided to participate in breast cancer-awareness programs as I felt it was my moral duty to tell my fellow citizens that it can be treated and defeated with early detection, courage and determination,” he said.
One of his main aims is to raise awareness that while breast cancer is more than 100 times more common in women, it can also develop in men.
“Anyone can get it, and one should not feel shy about it and go for diagnostics if there is any unusual growth,” Chaudhry said. The disease sometimes can pose a higher threat to men because in the absence of the dense breast tissue that women have, it can spread to the ribs more quickly.
He first noticed a small lump on his left breast in May 2013, which a doctor initially misdiagnosed as an allergic reaction.
“I went to another doctor who conducted a fine-needle test, which proved that it was cancer,” Chaudhry said. “This neglect of one month took my cancer from stage one to stage two — and had it been a few more months, I may not have survived.”
Chaudhry said he did not need to take time off from work during his treatment and was able to continue continue to conduct press briefings at the Foreign Office. In December 2013 he was appointed foreign secretary, and in March 2017 he became Pakistan’s ambassador to the US. He retired in May 2018.
In addition to his work with the ISSI, he is also president of the Patient Welfare Society at the Nuclear Medicine, Oncology and Radiotherapy Institute (NORI), a cancer hospital in the federal capital run by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.
“Cancer treatment is very expensive,” he said. “Medicines for chemotherapy, especially, are really costly. Our [NORI] society provides free medicines to needy patients, and residence and food to their attendants.” There is an urgent need in Pakistan for more cancer hospitals, he added.
Dr. Muhammad Faheem, a director at NORI, said Chaudhry plays a leading role in seeking donations and working to improve the facilities at the hospital.
The doctor also noted that the proportion breast cancer cases diagnosed in men in Pakistan is more than three times higher than the global level.
“If you look into international statistics, breast cancer in males constitutes less than one percent (of all cases),” he said. “In Pakistan, this percentage is higher, above three percent.”
