Breast cancer is curable : Dr Suresh Advani

Mumbai, Aug 13: Breast cancer, if diagnosed in early stages is completely curable, according to a prominent Oncologist.

Padmashree Dr Suresh Advani, consultant at many leading hospitals in Mumbai, is of the opinion that breast cancer is curable ''Earlier the diagnosis, better the prognosis'', Dr Advani said.

Dr Suresh, winner of Lifetime Achievement in Oncology in 2005 by Harvard Medical International, also runs 'Helping Hand for Cancer Care', an NGO says cancer case will mount from 10 to 24 million over the next 50 years.

Cancers of the breast and cervix are the leading causes of cancer deaths in women in India, mainly due to the fact that 70 per cent present in clinically advanced stage disease. Breast cancer is emerging as the leading cancer in women with lifestyle changes related to globalisation.

Population based cancer registries in India have shown breast cancer as the leading cancer in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore while in Chennai, Bhopal and Barshi, cancer of uterine cervix appears to be the leading cause of deaths followed by breast cancer.

A large number of factors are identified as risk factors for breast cancer. First pregnancy in late age (greater than 30 years), single child, menopause at late age are some important risk factors.

A high fat diet with affluent lifestyle is also identified as a risk factor.

Physical activity is found to be protective against breast cancer.

Consistent with changes in lifestyles, habits, diet and reduced physical activities in metropolitan cities, rising incidences of breast cancer have been already recorded. In most of the population of the world, there has been a large increase in the incidences of breast, corpus uteri and ovarian cancer and a decrease in cervical cancer.

Age adjusted incidence rate of breast cancer among Indian population shows highest incidence in metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Pune, followed by Chennai and Bangalore. Bombay cancer registry data clearly demonstrated rising trend in breast cancer during last two decades making it a leading cause of cancer deaths in women in Greater Bombay.

This rising trend cannot be stopped as global lifestyle changes are inevitable throughout the country.

Dr Advani says,''Our endeavour was to come up with a workable solution to address a critical issue of rising incidence of breast cancer and hence ''One Stop Breast Clinic'' was born. ''This is an outreach programme including a mobile van with mammography facilities and a group of committed workers to network with the community and provide breast cancer screening facilities at doorsteps in different parts of the city staring from industries, housing colonies, corporate offices, large and small residential areas and government offices.'' ''The goals of the mammography screening are reduction of mortality, downstage the disease and to enable early treatment. A well-furnished van with single screening unit and trained breast cancer nurse can visit 30-50 sites in the city at a regular monthly interval.'' The mammography films will be reported by a single trained radiologist and reports will be delivered to women by post. The women needing further check up will be contacted by telephone calls or by group workers networking from peripheral centres to central office.

The project is being supported by Birla Sun Life, SBI, Bank of Baroda, a few pharma companies, Yash Chopra and the Essar group. It is still under way and the mobile van will be on the roads in a few months.

UNI