Tamil Nadu: 25 lakh hit by cancer in India

Chennai, Aug 3: There were about 25 lakh cancer patients in India, 20 per cent of them being afflicted by gastrointestinal cancer and about 8 to 10 lakh new cases were detected every year, according to Dr P Satish Founder-Chairman of the Lotus Advanced Laparoscopic Surgical Centre.

Dr Satish told newsmen here yesterday that inspite of an increase in awareness and investigation modalities with more and more cancer cases being detected early, a large proportion of the patients came in late or at advanced stage of the disease.

In this scenario, this was the right time to increase awareness about cancer among the people, he said, adding in order to create awareness among the people, the centre would organise a three-day awareness exhibition about abdominal cancer from tomorrow.

He said the exhibition would focus on the causes and clinical features of each type of abdominal cancer. A free medical camp would also be held. If any investigation or surgical procedure was required for a patient, it would be done at a special 80 per cent discount. Free consultation would also be provided to patients with gastrointestinal problem every Saturday afternoon.

He said cancer could affect any age group. But it occurred commonly in the age group above 40 and as the age increased, the incidence of cancer also increased.

The common risk factors were family history, smoking, alcoholism, high salt diet, smoked food, gastric polyps, multiple gall bladder polyps, multiple colonic polyps, chronic pancreatitis, vitamin and nutritional deficiencies, cirrhosis of liver due to the viruses B, C and alcohol and scleroderma of oesophagus, he said.

Dr Satish said the common symptoms included indigestion, loss of appetite, weight loss, pain in any part of the body depending upon the organ affected. Jaundice was the common manifestation of liver or bile duct cancer while diabetes could be the first manifestation of pancreatic cancer, blood in vomit or in the motion was manifestation of bleeding anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract from oesophagus to anal canal due to cancer. Abdominal distension was a common cause of intestinal obstruction with or without symptoms of vomitting.

UNI