City hospitals on Monday observed World Cancer Day creating awareness about the disease and early diagnosis and the treatment.
Dr C Ramachandra, Director of the Kidwai Institute of Oncology, said a day-long programme was organised to educate how early diagnoses would make a difference in treating the disease.
“Breast, cervical, and stomach cancers have increased in the past few years, and it is very alarming,” he added.
The postal department released a postal cover to mark the occasion.
Centre of Excellence
Manisha Koirala, Bollywood actress and cancer survivor, launched the Centre of Excellence for Immunotherapy, Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) and Pressurised Intraperitoneal Aerosol Chemotherapy (PIPAC) at Manipal Hospital.
Dr H Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman of Manipal Hospitals, said: “The reason behind the alarming statistics of cancer is ignorance and denial of people, which often leads to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Nevertheless, the problem lies in the management of cancer and not the disease.”
According to the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), around 2.25 million people are living with cancer in the country.
Shortage of doctors
Lack of specialist doctors seems to be affecting the non-communicable disease (NCD) programme initiated by the state government at various NCD clinics across the state.
According to health department officials, there is a shortage of doctors, especially specialist, who could run the NCD centres. At the moment, there are at least 50% vacancies waiting to be filled.
The NCD clinics were started to provide awareness about lifestyle diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke and cancer. The health staff at the clinics screen patients for these diseases and refer them to larger health centres for further treatment.
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