Cancer: Not beyond us

On World Cancer Day today, The Union for International Cancer Control calls the doctors, institutions and the community at large to come together and unite in the fight against cancer

It is estimated that in the next year, nine million people will die of cancer and these numbers will unfortunately only rise, if steps towards cancer prevention and control are not put in place now. This year’s World Cancer day programme focuses on taking a proactive role in the fight against cancer under the tagline “Cancer- Not Beyond Us”.

Adopt a healthy lifestyle

Recent research has shown that physical activity brings down the incidence of cancers as well. About 50 per cent of common cancers can be prevented by reducing alcohol consumption, giving up smoking, a healthy diet and regular physical exercise and that is a pretty good incentive to help in making the right lifestyle choices.

Get regular check ups

Very commonly, people are not aware of the importance of seeking care when symptoms are present, nor are they aware about recommended screening tests such as pap smears, HPV tests for cervical cancers and mammograms for breast cancers. This holds true for women across the socio-economic strata and varied educational backgrounds.There is now clear evidence that deaths due to cervical cancer can be reduced by 80 per cent in screened women. In fact, even a single screening for cervical cancer in women between the ages of 30 -40 years can bring down a woman’s risk of cervical cancer by 25 to 36 per cent. Cervical cancer can be easily prevented by a combination of HPV vaccination and regular screening. The question is how do we get women to access health care and who pays for it? Cancer is a complex disease and often needs a lot of psycho-social input apart from a multidisciplinary medical treatment.

Spread awareness

In spite of improving levels of education and economy, discussion about cancer is often considered taboo. While people would not hesitate to talk about their symptoms and the various medications they are on for their hypertension and diabetes, a diagnosis of cancer is one topic they do not feel they can talk about.

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions that surround a diagnosis of cancer – a common one is that cancer is contagious which it is not. There is still a huge stigma attached to a cancer diagnosis especially in rural areas, very often leading to the person being ostracised from society.

Get involved

As a priority, levels of public and professional awareness about cancer screening and early cancer warning signs should be improved and we would like the health sector, government and the media to be part of this important initiative.

Cancer control has to begin with cancer awareness amongst the community at large. Understanding local cultural beliefs and practices is important and screening programmes will have to factor this into their programmes to succeed.

It is ‘Not Beyond Us’ to meet the challenge of cancer control, if communities and governments realise that prevention of cancer is better and definitely cheaper than cure, if cancer awareness is given priority and screening programmes are integrated in to existing health systems. On the occasion of World Cancer Day, let us all take a pledge to fight against cancer.

Valavadi Narayanaswamy Cancer Center, GKNM Hospital, and Coimbatore Cancer Foundation collaborate to give cancer awareness talks in schools, colleges, corporate offices and others, both in urban and rural areas as part of their community oncology programmes.