Hemas Hospital Wattala brought medical specialists, patients, survivors and healthcare stakeholders together for a clinical symposium on breast health, early detection and cancer care, and opened free breast examinations to the public on 28 October.
The symposium ran under the theme “Empowering Care, Awareness & Hope” as part of the hospital’s annual Breastober initiative, and was led by Dr Nissanka Jayawardhana.
Who spoke
Consultants Dr Kanchana Wijjesinghe, Dr Kalum Panditharathne, Dr Nissanka Jayawardhana, Dr Ajith De Silva and Dr Lanka Dissanayake discussed screening, treatment options, recovery and community support.
A separate patient and survivor session carried personal accounts of diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Organisers said the aim was to encourage women to seek medical advice and screening earlier.
Late presentation is the central problem in breast cancer care in Sri Lanka, where the disease is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, and survivor testimony is used at events of this kind because it addresses the reluctance to seek screening more directly than clinical advice does.
The imaging
The hospital set out its breast imaging services: 2D digital mammography and 3D digital breast tomosynthesis, using Hologic Selenia Dimensions and Hologic 3Dimensions systems.
According to Hemas Hospital Wattala, the technology is designed to produce detailed breast imaging while improving patient comfort and supporting lower-dose imaging. The hospital said 3D imaging can help clinicians examine breast tissue in greater detail and detect abnormalities that are harder to identify with conventional imaging — a difference that matters most in dense breast tissue, where standard mammography is least reliable.
Hemas also described a broader breast-care pathway combining screening, specialist consultations, surgical oncology and recovery support.
Context
The symposium falls in the same week as a separate national initiative: the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus is launching an islandwide breast cancer detection drive on 2 November, under which around 6,000 new cases and 1,000 deaths are recorded in Sri Lanka each year. The two are unconnected programmes that happen to coincide at the end of breast cancer awareness month.
Not reported
The filing gives no attendance figures — not for the symposium and not for the free examination day — so the reach of either is unknown. It does not say how many women were screened on 28 October, or whether any referrals followed.
It does not state the symposium’s date, only that the free examinations were part of the 28 October programme. No findings, recommendations or conclusions from the clinical sessions are reported, and no speaker is quoted directly.
The hospital’s claims about its imaging technology are reported as the hospital’s own; no independent clinical assessment appears in the filing. Costs of screening or treatment at the hospital are not given.
On sourcing: this is a single-source article drawn from a hospital announcement carried by Colombo Gazette, a verified newsroom. A search of the other verified outlets found no independent filing on the symposium. It should be read as a record of what Hemas announced rather than as independently verified reporting.
