India's breast cancer patients, a decade younger than those in West

Varanasi, Sep 24 (UNI) The breast cancer patients in India are a decade younger than those afflicted with the progressive disease in the West, an expert oncologist claimed here today.

Interacting with newspersons here, Associate Professor in Breast Unit of Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Vani Parmar said that while majority of breast cancer patients in western countries were aged between 50 and 60, over 70 per cent of patients suffering from the same progressive disease in India, were aged between 40 and 50 years.

''Out of the over 2,500 cases reported annually at our Hospital in Mumbai, over 70 per cent were aged between 40 and 50 years,'' she maintained.

''This is a grave trend indicating tnat the productive women population was vulnerable to the disease, which if detected early can be cured totally in 90 per cent cases,'' she added.

This is probably due to lifestyle changes courtsey fast urbanisation, especially among working women, as those who marry after 25 years, shy away from breast feeding their children and go for hormone replacement therapy after 50 years, are most vulnerable to this type of cancer.

She said that those women who get pregnant after a long time, suffer from obesity and regularly consume alchohal also stand at a greater risk of being afflicted with breast cancer, second most prevalent cancer among women after cancer of cervix.

Dr Parmar said that awareness held the key to prevention of this form of cancer in young women, as mammography -- test for breast cancer -- was more successful among women aged 50 or above. ''The young women should self-examine their breast regularly and in case they spot any irregularity, they should go for clinical examination to detect the suspected cancer in early stages.

''If detected in the first stage, the breast cancer can be totally cured in 90 per cent cases, followed by 75 per cent in second stage, 60 per cent in third stage and only five per cent in fourth and final stage,'' Dr Parmar added.

About the treatment of breast cancer, Dr Parmar said that a multi-modality treatment is offered -- surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and radio-therapy is applied in different permutations and combinations depending on the degree of the disease.

The third Asia Pacific Reach to Recovery International Breast Cancer Support Conference will be held in Mumbai from November seven to ten next, to be attended among others by experts, patients, healthy women and concerned NGOs for educating women on the issue.

UNI ARS MB SP PM1751