Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has set up the first ever cancer registry in Ghana.

The registry will facilitate data collection and management of the often fatal disease.

Speaking to JoyNews, Medical Director at KATH, Dr Baffour Awuah revealed that figures from the facility are already proving to be of significant value.

Liver, prostate and head cancers, he said, top cancer-related ailments in men while breast, cervical and ovarian cancers top the charts in women.

Dr Baffour Awuah indicated that majority of the cases recorded at the Hospital arrive at advanced stages.

“More than 70 percent of them [cases] come with stage three, stage four”, he bemoaned, adding that because the beginning stages of these cancers are usually painless and bloodless, most people do not turn to the hospital until it is too late.

One thing about cancer, he said, is that when it is starting, no matter how big it is, it’s not painful, you don’t see blood or anything. This is why most people prefer to turn to prayer camps, when they notice the symptoms, with the assumption that they have been bewitched.

By the time they finally turn up at the hospital, Dr Baffour Awuah explained, the cases would have become far too advanced, with disastrous results.