Cancer is preventable: Dr Dattatreyudu

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Tenali, Andhra Pradesh, Mar 4 (UNI) Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology in New York Nori Dattatreyudu said cancer is largely preventable and most curable of the major life threatening diseases.

Delivering the 15th Dr Yelavarthy Nayudamma Memorial lecture on the recent advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment after receiving the ''Nayudamma Memorial Award'' for 2006 from former Karnataka Governor V S Rama Devi here this evening, he said despite understanding of the root cause of cancer, the gap between scientific feasibility and applicability widened.

He said cancer could affect anyone at any time in life and six million new cancer cases occurred in developing countries while more than half of the 11 million cases reported world-wide.

Dr Dattatreyudu said four million cancer patients died every year in developing countries and over one million due to AIDS in these countries.

''Unless the current trend is changed, cancer in developing countries is expected to reach 70 per cent of the global cancer burden by 2030,'' he pointed out.

He said liver cancer killed 5,00,000 ever year across the world.

The Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) was the main cause of these cancers that made it the second most prevalent cause of cancer after the tobacco smoke, he added.

Dr Dattatreyudu said to prevent infections by the HBV, children should be vaccinated at birth in developing countries. Nearly 3,00,000 women died annually due to cervical cancer, 85 per cent of them in developing countries, he added.

Families, community-based groups, professional societies, national governments and international communities must support delivery of programmes and services to all people affected by cancer, as well as fight for better access to basic health services worldwide, he added.

He stressed that non smoking, especially tobacco products, and careful handling of herbicides, pesticides and chemicals in the tanning industry could prevent leukemia and bone cancers.

UNI

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