Bengaluru: More shock for the city as cancer cases witness a rise. According to a city-based abnormality report on Cancer shared by Indus Health Plus, there has been an increase of 2% in breast cancer cases compared to last year. The report was based on a study done on 13,850 people who underwent preventive health check-ups during January to December 2015. The reports also revealed that youngsters from the BPO or IT industry are heavy smokers (between the age group of 25-35 years) and more than 20% of them are under the risk of suffering from lung cancer.
"Head and Neck cancer, intestinal and lung cancer are common among males. The incidence of breast cancer are high among females from urban regions and cervical cancer is rising among the rural population. As per WHO statistics, 30% of cancer could be prevented if there is early screening. Government and private players should introduce cancer strategies and programmes to educate people about signs, symptoms and early diagnosis which will improve survival from cancer and empower individuals to adopt healthy choices," said Amol Naikawadi, Preventive Healthcare Specialist and JMD Indus Health Plus.
“There is little doubt that smoking is the leading instigator of lung cancer. However, in recent years we are coming across a lot of male and female patients who never smoked. Pulmonologists in cities with high air pollution levels frequently talk about the effects of poisonous air on the respiratory system of residents. In recent years, there is growing evidence that the dangerous mix of pollutants in our air also increases risk of lung cancer,” says Dr KV, Veerendra Kumar, Professor Department of Surgical Oncology, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.
Sadly, such whooping numbers fail to get people to be diagnosed on time. "There is a large section of under-diagnosed population of cancer patients in rural areas who come to us at an advanced stage," says Dr K C Lakshmaiah, Professor, Head, Medical Oncology, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology who says that due to lack of knowledge, when people hear the word ‘cancer’ they get scared and some hide it and some use traditional medicine until it becomes too late for treatment.
