Delay in cancer notification mars epidemiological data

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The delay in declaring cancer as a notifiable disease leads to duplication of cancer reporting in Kerala, undermining the epidemiological database, says Dr P.G. Balagopal, additional professor, surgical oncology at Regional Cancer Centre.  

Dr Balagopal told DC that it had become clichéd to stress on prevention through mass awareness and early detection to save lives because these two frontier areas in the state’s crusade against the scourge remained far too weak even at this stage.

Once the Government declared cancers as a disease that should be notified at the first point of detection and the information passed on to a Central Tumour Registry at RCC, duplication in reporting could be avoided.

In the absence of this mechanism, the primary detection at a local hospital and the subsequent reporting at the time of further confirmation and treatment at bigger hospitals are deemed as first-time reporting.

He pointed out that cancer of the breast, cervix, oral cavity and thyroid account for 59 per cent of the disease in women and in men, 31 per cent is oral cancer.

Women above 35 years should undergo Pap smear test and those above 40, mammogram test once a year.  Men who have a habit of smoking and/or drinking should submit themselves to oral examination to look for early signs of the malignancy.

Dr Balagopal also said that initial experiments with select ayuverda medications had shown promising trends in symptomatic relief for oral cancer by reducing the dryness in the mouth post-radiation. But it was early days because studies were still on.

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