03 June 2011
Chennai, India
The event being organized by the Chennai-based Gastrointestinal Patient Support Group encourages family members to share their experience in the programme. The programme will be attended by patients diagnosed with cancer, survivors, family members, doctors, nurses and philanthropists.
The number of cancer survivors in the country has increased several folds in the last three years, but the incidence of cancer is also increasing and more needs to be done to help survivors.
Women are clearly more at risk than men. According to Madras Metropolitan Tumour Registry, breast cancer tops the list of cancers with one in 29 women estimated to be at risk. This is followed by cervical cancer, which has one in 46 women at risk and ovarian cancer with one in 120 women at risk.
Among men, lung cancer tops the list with 1 in 60 men at risk, followed by stomach cancer with one in every 68 people at risk. Oral cancer is common among men and women, though many more men are at risk. The registry shows that one in 128 men and 91 women are likely to be affected by oral cancer.
"Failure to offer proper support to survivors is a big problem. If people come to hospitals early, we will be able to identify cancer quickly and improve survival rate. We also need to constantly encourage people with cancer to fight on," said Dr S M Chandramohan, surgical gasteroentorlogist.
The Sunday meeting will focus on common gastrointestinal cancers. Doctors will speak about early warning signs, treatment and quality of life for people with cancer. The survival rate for cancer of the colon has increased to 90% for five years if they are detected in the first stage. But if the disease is detected in the fourth state, the survival rate drops to 8% for five years.
The average survival rate of colon cancer is 43%, but it drops to 28% for stomach and 15% of oesophagal cancer. During the meeting, doctors will attempt to clarify doubts and dispel the myths about cancer.
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