Researchers seek a role for Ghana’s traditional healers in breast cancer care

In Ghana and many African countries, traditional medicine practitioners and faith healers play a prominent role in patient care.

These practitioners use herbal remedies, spiritual healing or other practices rooted in local customs or knowledge passed down through generations. Trusted by their communities, they are accessible, affordable and regarded as more patient-centered than conventional or orthodox healthcare.

But traditional medicine’s popularity runs up against a grim reality: More than 80% of Ghanaian women with breast cancer are not diagnosed until the disease has advanced. By this stage, breast cancer often requires more aggressive treatment, and the chances of a cure or long-term survival are lower. The five-year survival rate among women with breast cancer in Ghana is less than 50%.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Ghana and a leading cause of cancer-related death. A lack of a national breast cancer screening program likely contributes to delays, but experts believe women’s reliance on traditional medicine — used by more than half of cancer patients with cancer in Ghana — also plays a part.

Researchers at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, or KNUST, in Kumasi, Ghana, and Beth A. Virnig, Ph.D., a professor and dean of the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, are conducting ongoing studies to understand traditional and faith healers’ influence on breast cancer care in Ghana, with the goal of developing collaborative referral and care pathways between traditional and orthodox healthcare providers.

The team recently published an article in the journal PLOS One on traditional medicine practitioners’ understanding of breast cancer. In interviews with researchers, informally trained traditional practitioners demonstrated knowledge of the common signs of breast cancer consistent with orthodox medical practice, such as lumps or skin or nipple changes. Many said they rely on hospital scans or medical reports to confirm diagnosis.

But their explanations for what causes breast cancer differed from conventional medicine’s understanding, which is that the disease develops from a mix of one’s genes, hormones, lifestyle and environment.

“Most of the traditional medicine practitioners related the disease to a spiritual curse,” said Adwoa Bemah Boamah Mensah, Ph.D., an associate professor and vice dean at KNUST’s School of Nursing and Midwifery. “Once they see it as linked to spirituality, they may not see the need to refer the person for appropriate orthodox care until some months later when the patient’s spiritual healing is complete.”

The team’s previous study found Ghanaian women often do not follow a linear path in their cancer diagnosis and treatment.

“We realized women may use traditional medicine prior to diagnosis or after diagnosis, or sometimes they may start with orthodox care, and then because of cost or side effects, they may abandon the orthodox medicine and seek traditional medicine,” Boamah Mensah said.

While the KNUST-UF research focuses on traditional medicine in Ghana, the use of alternative therapies is hardly unique. A 2023 study conducted at two Utah cancer centers found more than 70% of patients use complementary or alternative medicine as part of their cancer care. The drive to seek care that patients perceive as accessible, holistic or aligned with personal beliefs is very human, Virnig said.

“It’s clear from our research that traditional and faith healers provide a lot more social, religious and spiritual support,” said Virnig, a member of the UF Health Cancer Institute. “I think we need to acknowledge that a lot of orthodox care doesn’t really address people’s psychological or spiritual needs or the emotional toll of disease. If patients are using these treatments, they need to feel they have permission to share that information with their clinicians.”

Traditional medicine is culturally embedded in Ghana, and future efforts to improve breast cancer care must look for ways traditional medicine and orthodox practitioners can work together, the researchers say.

“Traditional medicine is part of our primary healthcare system,” Boamah Mensah said. “Acknowledging traditional medicine’s role in our health structure, we can look at what we can learn from both traditional and orthodox providers so that we can make the detection and treatment journey easier for patients and with better health outcomes.”