Cancer

The majority (53 per cent) of new breast cancer cases are among women living in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). A shift towards more affluent lifestyles, particularly those linked to the dietary and reproductive risk factors, and changing fertility patterns attributable to fast urbanisation are found to be associated with an increasing burden of breast cancers in the LMICs.

The findings, presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO), also identified a dose-response relationship between higher obesity levels and the risk of developing obesity-related cancers, irrespective of alcohol consumption. "Our results suggest that people with obesity, especially those with excess body fat, need to be more aware of the risks around alcohol consumption," said researcher Elif Inan-Eroglu from The University of Sydney.

Talking to IANS, Dr Neerja Bhatla, Head Of Department, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said that in Indian women, cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer, but is preventable and curable, if found early and effectively treated. However in India, an estimated 123,907 new cases and 77,000 deaths are reported each year, or one woman dying every 8 minutes, she said.

Presently different kinds of cancer is taking into its grip around 14 lakh Indians, killing 8 lakh every year, as many as 27 per cent are attributed to tobacco use. The health experts also felt that passage of the proposed amendments for a stricter tobacco-control law, COTPA, will help reduce the menace.

Globally, cancer is one of the leading causes of death, with an estimated 20 million people diagnosed and 10 million deaths from the disease in 2021, the WHO said. These numbers will continue to rise in the decades ahead, Xinhua news agency quoted the global health body as saying.Though all cancers can be treated and many can be prevented or cured, available care reflects global inequality.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Oncology, has also revealed key genetic signatures that can predict survival in oral cancer patients with over 90 per cent accuracy. Further, the analysis of mutations gave out a list of unique genes associated with 114 novel variants, of which 35 were oncogenes, 11 were tumour suppressors, and 2 DNA damage repair genes.

National Cancer Awareness Day is observed every year on November 7 in India, to increase awareness about cancer prevention and the need for its early detection. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), there will be an estimated 12 per cent rise in cancer cases in India in the next five years.

Academics at Cardiff University carried out a systematic review of 118 published observational studies in patients with 18 different cancers. They pooled the results and found that in a total of nearly 2,50,000 patients with cancer, who reported taking aspirin, this was associated with a reduction of nearly 20 per cent in cancer deaths. Their review is published in the open access journal ecancermedicalscience.

This is a significant portion of the healthcare budget allocation the government made in 2019-20, towards a single disease. Without any inflation in costs, this will result in an economic burden on the country of Rs 23,724 crore over the next ten years. Tata Memorial Centre Published the first of its kind study on the cost of illness and treatment of oral cancer in India.

Cancer care has greatly suffered this last one year due to restrictions put on travel, preventing patients from seeking scheduled treatments. In addition, there have been delays in regular follow ups, postponement of scheduled surgeries following neo-adjuvant chemotherapies, unavailability of palliative care facilities, and an absence of cancer screening programs.