India’s northeast region neighbouring Bangladeshand Myanmar is in the high prevalence zone of different types of Cancerand the disease can be prevented by adjusting lifestyle and food habits, say experts.
Cancerexperts from Indiaand other countries, assembled here for the 10th International CancerScreening Network (ICSN) meeting, opine that while lifestyle diseases like diabetes and blood pressure are not curable, most cancers can be healed if detected early.
“The northeast region, Bangladeshand Myanmar are in the high prevalence area of different types of cancer. The cancers’ predominance in the region can be preventable to a large extent by changing lifestyle and food habits,” said G.K. Rath, head of the Bhim Rao Ambedkar Institute Rotary CancerHospital (BRAIRCH) affiliated to AIIMS.
He said: “The northeast region has the highest incidence of Cancerwith 40 per cent of the disease being related to tobacco followed by consumption of fast food, smoked and red meat and alcohol. Physical inactivity and consuming excess calories can also be blamed for incidence of cancer.”
Rath said the country is facing a surge in non-communicable diseases as compared to communicable diseases unlike the past. “Communicable diseases, which are fatal, have been controlled by medical attention.”
“Canceris among the top three causes of death in the country with an average of 14 lakh Cancercases diagnosed every year. However, 80 per cent of this disease is curable, if detected and attended early, with 60 per cent of Cancerpreventable and 70 per cent detectable,” Rath said.
Cancerexperts, scientist and doctors from the US, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Switzerland and Bangladesh, besides from various parts of India, are taking part in the three-day ICSN meeting, which commenced on Monday.
Ravi Mehrotra, director of the National Institute of CancerPrevention and Research, said: “If 39 cases of Cancerper thousand people are found in rural Maharashtra, the ratio in the northeastern region is about 170 per thousand people. The northeastern region is the highest cancer-prone zone in the country. Besides, adjacent Bangladeshand Myanmar are also in the high prevalence zone of various types of cancers.”
He said the mortality rate depends on the type of cancer.
“Cancerscreening using modern methodologies could reduce 80 per cent Cancerburden in cervical cancer, 50 per cent in gastrointestinal Cancerand 25 per cent in breast cancer.”
“Oral, tongue, lung, breast, cervical, esophageal and gall bladder cancers are highest in the northeastern states where people are traditionally habituated to consumption of various types of tobacco, smoked meat, betel-nut, alcohol and unprocessed items. Lack of adequate knowledge about the bad effects of these intoxicants has further swelled the incidence of cancer,” Mehrotra said.
Ted Trimble, director of the US-based Center for Global Health under National CancerInstitute, said: “We are working in research and information dissemination activities for the past many years. We are keen to share our experience with the experts and doctors dealing with cancer-related activities.”
Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, Special Advisor on CancerControl and Head of the Early Detection and Prevention Section at the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, said that earlier incidence of cervical Cancerwas very high among Indian women but now breast Cancerhas become the No.1 cancer.
“As people in northeast Indiaconsume less fruits, vegetables and foods with high protein, they suffer from increasing number of cancer. If we are serious about avoiding cancer, we should go for lifestyle change and altering the food habits,” Sankaranarayanan added.
According to a latest report of the ICMR under its National CancerRegistry Programme, Aizawl district of Mizoram and Papum Pare district in Arunachal Pradesh are the two districts in the northeastern region with the highest age-adjusted Cancerincidence rate in the country.
News Source: IANS
