Let us Fight Together... Conquer Breast Cancer

Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital published its findings on cancer in India in the British medical journal, Lancet recently. It said that about 6% of all deaths in India are from cancer, and 70% of cancer deaths happen between the productive 30-69 age group. There were an estimated 5,600,000 cancer deaths in India in 2010.

I would like to share the thoughts of one of my colleague who's family friend has fought breast cancer. She is one of the many cancer survivors who is a source of inspiration to all of us, especially the women folks. She is diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer last year. The initial response was the usual shock & grief. She is a brave lady bringing up two daughters during the most challenging circumstances. She consented for all the advice by the Oncologist, underwent surgery followed by both chemo & radiotherapy. She is now cancer free and leads a joyful meaningful life without any limitations. She goes to parties, plays cards at the local club, does trekking etc. When she was told about our Molecular Screening Services (INFOHaem MSS) for early risk prediction, she remarked: “I wish everyone would undergo that kind of tests and make informed lifestyle changes to prevent the disease or be in a better position to fight it out”.

Breast cancer has overtaken cervical cancer in our state of Karnataka. According to statistics available with the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology’s (KMIO) cancer registry, breast cancer accounts for 27% of all cancers suffered by women in the state, whereas cervical cancer constituting 13%. 

Dr M Vijaya Kumar, Director of KMIO claimed that the institute gets over 1,000 new cases of breast cancer every year and most of these are from urban areas like Bangalore. Although the average age of a breast cancer patient is 50, but younger women too are getting this disease fast. 

Dr Anthony Pais from Majmudar Shaw Cancer Center said that by 2020, 60% of breast cancer cases of the world will be from India. Breast cancer is increasing at a dramatic percentage of 51% globally according to the WHO. In India, one out of 26 women suffers from breast cancer, whereas in western countries, the corresponding number is one out of eight women.

According to studies conducted between 2006 and 2008, the crude incidence of breast cancer in Bangalore is 29 per 100,000 female population. This study was published by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research ) in 2010.  This made Bangalore at its rank of number one when it came to age adjusted rate of breast cancer in India. 

Early detection is the key to fight breast cancer and increased level of awareness can also serve the purpose, said experts during the first Breast Cancer Survivors Conference which was held recently in Pune, India. Dr. Shona Nag said, "A lot of breast cancer patients are cured now. Their survivorship is equated to life which begins for the patient after the treatment ends." Dr. Anantbhushan Ranade said more than 40% cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in the third or fourth stage. "This is a cause for concern as early diagnosis can lead to better chances of successful treatment".

We are losing millions of their most productive years to cancer. The first elaborate study to estimate the global impact of cancer on the number of healthy years of life lost by patients has found that Indians lost 18.7 million years of productive healthy life to cancer in 2008 alone. Globally, around 170 million years of healthy life were lost to cancer the same year. China accounted for 25% and India (11%) of these 170 million lost years. Both these Asian giants accounted for 67% of the burden in Asia.

Most doctors feel that early detection tests for breast cancer save thousands of lives each year, and that many more lives could be saved if even more women and their health care providers took advantage of these tests. Following the American Cancer Society's guidelines for the early detection of breast cancer improves the chances that breast cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage and treated successfully. Our MSS is in lines with the international guidelines.

We all need united effort to fight against cancer, so that we have more cancer survivors among us, or I would put it this way...Cancer Conquerors.

References:
1. http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/moreinformation/breastcancerearlydetection/breast-cancer-early-detection-importance-of-finding-early
2. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-08/bangalore/34322345_1_breast-cancer-cervical-cancer-cancer-amounts
3. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Millions-of-productive-years-lost-to-cancer/articleshow/16831525.cms
4. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-14/pune/34448222_1_fight-breast-breast-cancer-survivors-conference-shona-nag

By Sneha Gopal, Software Developer