User:Rassidatou/sandbox

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
The article is concise and is limited to presenting mostly work that is only relevant to the scope of work of the ministry. Nonetheless, there is mention of a department that is no longer part of the ministry as a new branch is now in charge of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy or AYUSH. Even though the article states that this is no longer under the ministry scope, it can still be considered relevant given that it is also about health and used to be taken care of by the ministry.

The article is presented without any apparent bias or heavily supported personal opinion from the writer. From the ideas shared to the vocabulary used in expressing them, everything points to the conclusion that the article has a neutral tone and is free from any subtle bias.

On the downside, there are multiple points in the article that are incredibly underrepresented. The article presents the two main departments of the ministry, along with the different programs they run and the sub departments they include. But the article gives no information whatsoever on any of the programs. For example, the National Cancer Program of the Indian government is listed but without any further details on what it is, its content or other related information.

The article is supported by few references. Two out of 5 references are from the same online news website, and the other sources are all from the official websites of the Indian government. Some of the sources talk about totally different matters than the topic of the page and only mention the information cited in a sentence. Nonetheless, the article is heavily connected to other articles on wikipedia.

Each fact is not related to a reliable source as mentioned above, none of the sources is from a peer reviewed journal for example. In addition those sources incorporate bias. The online newspaper articles particularly defend an argument against an action taken by the Ministry of health and therefore present very opinionated articles. As for the official websites, they are from the ministry of Health so they evidently will portray the picture that makes the ministry look the best.

The page was last edited less than a month ago, os the information is still pretty accurate. A lot of information could be added pretty much about each of the programs undertaken by the two departments within the ministry.

On the talk page, the conversation is around the National Rural Health Mission initiated by the Indian Government. There are also conversations around one of the department I mentioned above, namely AYUSH.

In terms of quality, the article got a C-CLass and is ranked in the top-importance category. The article is part of the WikiProject India.

Epidemiology of breast cancer
The article is focused on the topic at hand and does not diverge onto other completely unrelated topics. All the information provided has to do with breast cancer epidemiology only. The article also presents charts explaining information on other types of cancers, showing their incidence as well as mortality rates next to those of breast cancer.

There are no claims in the article that signal any type of bias. All the information is shared from a neutral perspective and does not attempt in any way to defend or criticize one position or another. It rather presents each fact objectively.

This article introduces a lot of points but does not follow through on providing enough information on each of them. For example, the article is meant to talk about breast cancer epidemiology on a global scale but it only develops on data from the US, UK and developing countries together. As for the 12 world regions the article mentions, it only gives the breast cancer incidence in these regions.

This article is largely and extensively backed up with references. Though it is short, nearly every single fact is linked to a reference. This further explains why the article is free of any bias given that it draws from so many sources. The sources used are very diverse, but they do contain a lot of peer reviewed sources such as WebMd. However, one of the sources is not traceable because the format of the citation does not provide enough information on where the information was retrieved from.

As mentioned before, the article provides a reference for every fact presented and most of the sources used are reliable sources, exception of a few only. There are official websites and also no peer reviewed journals and other sources considered valid.

Most of the references cited by the articles are pretty old, going back to even 1999 and early 2000s. The facts provided in the article are mostly from newer sources, though some still link back to old sources. A lot of information is missing, especially regarding breast cancer epidemiology in the 12 world regions. More could be said about incidence, sources of differences between regions, treatment methods and control programs for example. There is also one section in the article that talks about cancer in terms of age in only one line. This clearly does not provide enough information on breast cancer prevalence by age and could use some help.

There is currently no talk page for this article, so its rating is unavailable and there is no information on whether or not it is part of any WikiProject.

Epidemiology of breast cancer
This article does not have a talk page yet. The information provided on breast cancer epidemiology in developing countries in the article could be improved to reflect more facts about breast cancer in other developing countries, particularly on those in Africa. These articles could help in this endeavour.

The descriptive epidemiology of female breast cancer: An international comparison of screening, incidence, survival and mortality
Youlden, Danny R. “The Descriptive Epidemiology of Female Breast Cancer: An International Comparison of Screening, Incidence, Survival and Mortality.” Cancer Epidemiology, Elsevier, 27 Mar. 2012, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187778211200029X.

This article provides, as the title suggests, a worldwide overview of breast cancer that I could use to enrich "Epidemiology of breast cancer"'s section on "developing countries." I will focus my contribution on adding information regarding breast cancer in African countries only given that the wikipedia article does not mention anything about it. This article will help put the information I get on African countries in perspective of the information on other countries.

==== A meta-analysis of male breast cancer in Africa ==== Ndom, Paul, and Germaine Um. “Use the SFX Sidebar to Access Full Text or Other Library Services for This Item.” SFX by Ex Libris Inc., Science Direct, June 2012, ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local?ID=doi%3A10.1016%2Fj.breast.2012.01.004&genre=article&atitle=Review%3A%2BA%2Bmeta-analysis%2Bof%2Bmale%2Bbreast%2Bcancer%2Bin%2BAfrica&title=The%2BBreast&issn=09609776&isbn=&volume=21&issue=3&date=20120601&aulast=Ndom%2C%2BPaul&spage=237&pages=237-241&sid=EBSCO%3AScienceDirect%3AS0960977612000069.

This article is a review of articles dealing with male breast cancer in Africa. This is an issue that is often forgotten due to its compared insignificance to the burden of female breast cancer. Including information on male breast cancer in my contribution would make it more holistic in a way that the conversation about breast cancer is not only limited to the one touching women alone.

==== Delayed presentation and diagnosis of breast cancer in African women: a systematic review ==== Espina, Carolina, and Fiona McKenzie. “Delayed Presentation and Diagnosis of Breast Cancer in African Women: a Systematic Review.” SFX by Ex Libris Inc., Anals of Epidemiology/ Science Direct, 22 Sept. 2017, ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local?ID=doi%3A10.1016%2Fj.annepidem.2017.09.007&genre=article&atitle=Review+article%3A+Delayed+presentation+and+diagnosis+of+breast+cancer+in+African+women%3A+a+systematic+review&title=Annals+of+Epidemiology&issn=10472797&isbn=&volume=&issue=&date=20170901&aulast=Espina%2C+Carolina&spage=&pages=&sid=EBSCO%3AScienceDirect%3AS1047279717304027.

This article addresses the part of epidemiology that is concerned with incidence of breast cancer. It presents a lot of information not only on the incidence of breast cancer but also on the stages at which they are diagnosed in African countries. This is relevant to the section on African countries I want to create and certainly to having a general knowledge of breast cancer epidemiology.

Breast Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities to Reduce Mortality
Pace, Lydia E., and Lawrence N. Shulman. “Breast Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities to Reduce Mortality.” The Oncologist, AlphaMed Press, June 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4912363/.

This article provides detailed information on breast cancer incidence, as well as mortality rates in subsaharan Africa in particular. The information provided in the paper will enrich my contribution on African countries, especially through the mortality rates that are not as extensively discussed in the other sources I will be using. In addition, It also talks about treatment, as well as screening, which provides near complete information on the epidemiology of breast cancer in African countries that I can utilise.

Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide
This is considered in academia and by many experts as the source for the most up to date data on cancer worldwide. I used it to get comparative data on the incidence of breast cancer between different African regions.

Breast Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa: Opportunities for Prevention
I used this paper in different parts of my contribution given that it covered a lot of information. I used some of the data on incidence, as well as the current challenges.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
The talk page for this article gives elaborated content on the National Rural Health Mission, which is not part of the main article but is related to the topic discussed. There is also notification that copyright information previously in the article no longer remains as it has been cleared, and proposed categories that the article could use. Given that the article provides no detail on most of the programs listed, I will focus on the National Cancer Control Program and aim to add a description of the program.

National Cancer Control Programme in India: Proposal for Organization of Chemotherapy and Systemic Therapy Services
GuliaA, Seema. “National Cancer Control Programme in India: Proposal for Organization of Chemotherapy and Systemic Therapy Services.” Journal of Global Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, June 2017, ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JGO.2015.001818.

This article is a review of the cancer care delivery realm in India, which falls under the scope of the National Cancer Control Programme. It focuses on delivery methods and identifies the flaws in the system. For that reason, it contribute to pointing out some of the short fallings of the programme and discusses potential solutions. Though I will not be mentioning the solution in my addition, the rest of the information provided in the paper would be useful.

Challenges to effective cancer control in China, India, and Russia
Goss, Paul E., and Kathrin Strasser-Weippl. “Challenges to Effective Cancer Control in China, India, and Russia.” The Lancet Oncology, Elsevier, 11 Apr. 2014, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470204514700294?via%3Dihub#cesec210.

This article, as the title indicates, talks specifically about cancer control in China, India and Russia. The information provided in the section of the article that deals particularly with India is the part that interest me and will serve in many ways to the contribution I will make to my assigned article. Here, the authors give a background of cancer incidence in the country and the address the disease's fast growth in the country. This will allow me to provide information on why a national cancer program was needed in the first place. The article then explains the details of the national cancer control program, which I will use in my addition. The article also addresses the challenges that the program faces, which would help make my addition more representative of the information available on the topic as one of the sources I am using provides details on the achievements of the programme.

Indian National Cancer Control Programme: Setting sight on shifting targets
Sarin, Rajiv. “Indian National Cancer Control Programme: Setting Sight on Shifting Targets.”Ebscohost, Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutiucs, Oct. 2005, eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=10&sid=35d0f38e-94f8-43bd-9c0c-5ca02d97db6c%40sessionmgr4009.

This article will be useful in providing information on the history of the creation of the National Cancer Control programme. The article gives numerous details on the beginning of the programme, as well the initial goals the government set for it. The article provides more information on the achievements of the programme but given that it is not a new article, those might be outdated now. Therefore, I will only use the information on the history of the launch of the programme.

National cancer control and registration program in India
Rath, Goura Kishor, and Ajeet Kumar Gandhi. “National Cancer Control and Registration Program in India.” Ebscohost, Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology, 2014, eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=11&sid=35d0f38e-94f8-43bd-9c0c-5ca02d97db6c%40sessionmgr4009.

This article serves as confirmation for a lot of the information I am retrieving from other sources, as it also briefly talks about the creation of the National Cancer Control Programme and its goals. This article is particularly useful because it also gives details on the evolution of the National Cancer control program, which would be important information to add to my contribution. It also talks about specific programs initiated by the Government as well as subsequent and sometimes bigger ones that came out of the control programme. This will all allow me to enrich my contribution.

Cancer Country Profiles India
This is a document put together by the World Health Organisation that provides a summary of all the information available on cancer in India. In addition to giving the quantitative data related to the disease, they also provide an assessment of policies by the government to control the disease, which was useful for me in talking about the achievements of the NCCP.

History
With the emergence of Cancer as a growing threat to Public Health, the Indian Government, through the Ministry of Health and Welfare, initiated the National Cancer Control Program (NCCP) in 1975. Initially, the focus of the program was prevention as its aim was to educate the population and make detection and diagnosis resources available. Another goal for the program was to increase capacity in the structures already dealing with cancer and address the short fallings of palliative care. The program was subsequently revised between 1984 and 1985 to better set it up for success in its goal of reducing cancer morbidity and mortality in the country, mainly through primary prevention and early detection. Between 1990 and 1991, the cancer control program was decentralised with the introduction of services at the district level. The last revision on the NCCP intervened in 2005.

Achievements
Since its creation, the program has had many major accomplishments such as the establishment of the National Cancer Registry Programme in 1982. Even though the registry does not cover the whole population affected by cancer, it is gives the most updated information on the burden of cancer in the country and informs policies enacted to fight cancer such as provisions for additional funding to public hospitals and the creation of cancer centres in 27 regions. Through the National Cancer Control Programme, the country was able to put in place effective policies to foster primary prevention such as a tobacco control policy to minimise the negative impacts from the use of tobacco. The country also disposes of policies to control and prevent obesity and alcohol abuse, and policies to foster physical activity and ensure that is available for everyone. Cancer screening and early detection services are generally offered in public health centres, especially for breast and cervical cancer. The NCCP led to the creation of 27 cancer centres across the country, and 85 additional oncology programs in medical schools.

Challenges
Despite the successes, the National Cancer Control Programme is faced with numerous challenges. Accessibility, availability, and affordability of cancer care resources remain a major issue faced by the program. Problems of access are due to lack of financial means to afford the resources that are available or the lack of financial to make the decisions that would reduce the risks of developing the disease. These include lifestyle decisions such as smoking, alcohol consumption and nutrition patterns. Availability is a major problem particularly in rural areas because the resources are concentrated in cities and solving the geographical gap between resources such as facilities and personal remains a challenge for the NCCP.

Incidence and Mortality
Data on breast cancer in Sub Saharan Africa is available, though extremely limited compared to developed countries. Breast cancer has the highest incidence among Sub Saharan African women, and has now also the highest mortality rate in many of the countries in the region, before cervical cancer. Breast cancer causes 20% of cancer deaths in women and represents 25% of cancers diagnosed. Incidence rates of breast cancer varies from region to region in Sub Saharan Africa and are 30.4, 26.8, 38.6 and 38.9 respectively in Eastern Africa, Central Africa, Western Africa and Southern Africa. Sub Saharan Africa has lower incidence rates for breast cancer than developed countries but the mortality rates reflected in the region are much higher. Many reasons were found to be the source of this disparity, including the fact that breast cancer is diagnosed at later stages in Sub Saharan Africa. For example, while Central Africa had a mortality/incidence ratio of 0.55 in 2012, the US had only 0.16. In addition to being diagnosed at later stages, breast cancer in Sub Saharan Africa was also found to have an earlier onset compared to western countries. Screening is considered an important tool to tackle the late stage diagnosis of breast cancer by most policy makers in African Countries, especially given that treatment is greatly limited by the lack of resources. More research is also required to produce more updated data on breast cancer and better understand the variances there and how they affect the burden of the disease in the region.

Challenges
One of the major challenges in reducing the burden of breast cancer in Sub Saharan Africa remains the lack of National Cancer Control Programs and the lack of human as well as financial resources. The majority of countries lack integrated prevention and treatment programs, which complicates the control of the disease in those countries. Also, the regions disposes of a disproportionally low number of cancer registries, along with resources and facilities for treatment. This all factors into the different countries' difficulties to ensure that women at high risk are identified and that the disease is diagnosed early enough to have better chances of being treated. The lack of affordable and effective treatment methods also renders the efforts to promote early detection because those affected are then faced with inaccessible and unaffordable resources in the cases where they are available. The challenges to tackling breast cancer in Africa are varied, not fully understood, and further complicated by possible unique risk factors that could be highlighted by further studies, but developing strategies that foster early detection are viewed in literature as a priority for effective fight against the disease.

Male breast cancer
Male breast cancer is a much less talked about issue due to its lower incidence with less than 1% of breast cancer in Sub Saharan Africa. A review of the disease found that male to female ratio was higher in Sub Saharan Countries than in developed countries and that onset of the disease occurred on average 7 years latter in men than in women. There is a noticeable decrease in the male to female breast cancer ratio in recent years but that might be associated to the recent increase in female breast cancer in the region. There is still little understanding of the causes of the higher risk for male breast cancer in Sub Saharan Africa and on male breast cancer in general, leading to poor clinical management of the disease.