Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 3: Talking on World Cancer Day here today, Dr Ashutosh Gupta, HOD & Associate Professor, Oncology, at Government Medical College & Hospital, Jammu said that there were few illnesses that have left such a deep scar on the public psyche than cancer. Despite having been one of the leading causes of death across the globe for decades, there were still many misconceptions about the disease. It was increasingly necessary to dispel those misconceptions to avoid tragic problems in the future.
"The people did not want to talk openly about the disease. If they have cancer, they got silent. They closed their doors and stay at home. They were reluctant to go hospital to see doctors. That negative understanding would influence the result as early detection would make it treatable, but doctors could hardly help them if it was too late," he said.
In actual fact, a third of the most commonly occurring cancers could be prevented with the right treatment. With advances in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, people have more opportunities to learn the facts about this disease. A positively informed attitude would go a long way in battling cancer, maintained Dr Gupta. The people all across J&K needed to utilize the World Cancer Day to create awareness regarding the severe implication of cancer, the causes, the rectifications and also the removal of myths, he asserted. This year theme "Debunk the Myth" was to create awareness regarding cancer myths. The cancer was not just a health issue. It has wide reaching social, economic, development and human rights implications. Cancer once considered a death sentence could now be cured. Cancer was attacking every person without reference to age, region, religion, educational level and it was not anybody fate, informed Dr Gupta.
He said according to WHO in India nearly 7-lakh died of cancer every year, while over 10-lakh were newly diagnosed with some form of the disease. More women in India were being newly diagnosed with cancer annually. As against 4.77-lakh men, 5.37-lakh women were diagnosed with cancer in India in 2012. 1 every 10 Indians ran the risk of getting cancer before 75-year of age, while 7 in every 100 ran the risk of dying from cancer before 75year of age. Cancer of lip and oral cavity has emerged as the deadliest among Indian men while for women, it was breast cancer." |
