Celebs, docs spread awareness about cancer

Kolkata, Feb 6 (UNI) For some cancer is a loss of self-dignity and for others a sordid secret to be buried deep within--these are certain taboos that a World Cancer Week symposium tried to deal with apart from sharing the means to heal and prevent the virtual killer.

On the occasion of World Cancer Week, Big FM (92.7 FM) held a panel discussion on the symptoms and its detection, and effective treatment of the disease, as a part of a 'community social responsibility initiative'.

The discussion was meant to make people aware of how to successfully treat cancer and cope with it in its aftermath.

The session especially dealt with breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

Among other panelists present at the discussion were fashion designer and model Shamlu Dudeja, renowned poet Mallika Sengupta and Radio personality and small screen actor Urmimala Bose.

Ms Dudeja, now a social activist, was once a victim of breast cancer. She not only recovered from it but is also helping other less fortunate women in the country in fighting the menace.

''I was a model and when I was asked to 'chopoff' one of my breasts I was devastated. Today, I not only live to tell the story but I want to help the less fortunate women among us deal with it.

There was a time when I felt a lack of .. not just dignity, but also creativity. The treatment had begun to take its toll and I was broken,'' she said.

An emotional Sengupta, once a Mathematics teacher was forced to leave her career when she also fell prey to this ailment. She recovered very recently and lived to help others.

Ms Sengupta explained the disease was still considered a taboo in society and how she had not told anyone until her operation was over. She stressed on the need for people to be able to talk about it freely. She felt that this strange perception regarding ailments of a woman's body is one of the main reasons why so many women die of breast and ovarian cancer every year.

''We must be able to talk about it freely and not feel guilty about ourselves or feel shy,'' she said.

Present on the occasion were oncologist Dr Arnab Gupta, who enlightened the press gathering on how to detect cancer in its early stages and how to treat it successfully. He demonstrated the methods of how a woman can herself examine her body to detect tumour in her breasts, armpits (lymph nodes) or neck.

Regarding its treatment, he said, ''The best way to treat breast cancer is surgery. It is a wrong conception that surgery affects a patient negatively. It is rather the best way. If, however, surgery is not possible then the best treatment is chemotherapy. There is a third option as well, which is radiotherapy. It again is not harmful for the body.'' He also emphasised on another step in cancer treatment, the hormonal therapy (anti-oestrogen therapy), which he said, is most essential, since it deals with the hormones in the human body.

He admitted that there is no way of knowing whether a person will have cancer or why one has to suffer from it. He however, mentioned smoking, drinking, excess fat intake of food and contraceptives to be some of the reasons.

He also cited genes as one of the probable causes.

''There is a one per cent chance for genes to be the causative factor. Only three kinds of cancer, colon, breast and ovarian -- are genetic in nature,'' he added.

UNI