Cancer continues to be dreaded because few realise that timely diagnosis and treatment can cure most types of tumours. Fewer still know that cancer can be prevented by healthy lifestyle. It is to make people aware of these that All India Institute of Medical Sciences started a cancer prevention clinic last week.At the clinic, families of patients are counselled about the risk of familial cancers and screening tests available to diagnose them at an early stage to reduce mortality rates. They are also educated about the identified risk factors such as smoking, alcoholism or obesity for different cancers.
At present, doctors say survival rate for most cancers stagnates at 20% because a majority of the patients come when the disease is already in the advanced, or III and IV, stages. "If cancer is detected early , 80% patients can be cured of the disease," asserted Dr GK Rath, chief of AIIMS cancer centre, the Bhim Rao Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital.
Read more of this in a report by Durgesh Nandan Jha published in Times of India...
