World Cancer Day: Stress On Need To Close Gap In The Care Of This Dreaded Disease

Bhubaneswar: World Cancer Day will be celebrated on February 4 with the aim to significantly reduce illness and death caused by the deadly disease.

According to statistics, around 2.25 million people suffer from cancer with 12 lakh cases being reported every year.

While head and neck, lung, stomach and colon cancer are common in men, women mostly suffer from breast cancer, head and neck cancer, lung and gastric-related cancer.

World Cancer Day theme for 2022-2024 is ‘Close the Care Gap.’ The campaign is about understanding and recording the inequities in cancer care around the globe.

This theme is very important for countries like India as low-income nations have poor prognosis for cancer compared to high-income countries. The gap in cancer care is due to lack of awareness among the general population and inequitable access to affordable curative services.

There are certain preventable (modifiable) cancer and non-preventable (non-modifiable) causes of cancer. The preventable causes are tobacco use (cigarette and bidi smoking, gutka chewing etc). It increases the risk of head and neck, esophagus and stomach cancer.

The other most important cause of cancer is obesity and physical inactivity, which leads to esophageal, breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer. The third most important cause is infection (Human Ppapilloma Virus, Hepatitis-B virus).

So by quitting smoking, exercising daily, following a healthy food habit and vaccination many cancers can be prevented. Through screening modalities like monthly breast self-examination, annual mammography, pap smear exam, etc. breast and cervical cancer can be detected at a very early stage. Complete cure from cancer is possible in these cases.

(Dr Priyanka P. Nayak is Senior Consultant, Medical Oncology, SUM Ultimate Medicare, Bhubaneswar)