Breast cancer has emerged as the leading cause of cancer deaths in metropolitan cities across the country. (ICMR) registers about 90,000 new every year.
Increased awareness has resulted in women from urban India getting themselves diagnosed
Breast cancer has emerged as the leading cause of cancer deaths in metropolitan cities across the country. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) registers about 90,000 new cases of breast cancer every year.
The silver lining, however, is that most cancer patients are now going for breast conservation instead of mastectomy or surgical removal of breasts. Till a few years back, mastectomy was the most preferred treatment available to breast cancer patients.
During this breast cancer awareness month, experts want to stress that breast conservation is as safe as mastectomy and it does not determine the recurrence of cancer.
India is catching up fast with the global trend of rising breast cancer cases with statistics suggesting that one out of every 30 women in urban India is at risk of getting it. While, for women of rural India every one out of 60 might get it at some point of time.
Medical experts, however, suggest that the situation is not very bad. Due to increased awareness about the ailment, women from urban India are getting themselves diagnosed. “Early diagnosis means that survival rates are higher and so are the chances of saving that vital organ of the body,” says Dr Vani Parmar, breast surgical oncologist at Tata Cancer hospital.
Though breast conservation was started at the Tata memorial hospital in 1981, it took doctors a considerable time to convince patients about its success and for patients to rely on its effectiveness. “Now, more than 70 per cent of our patients actually opt for conservation of the breast and this number can further go up with the help of early diagnosis,” points out Dr R Sareen, Prof in radiation oncology at the Tata Cancer hospital.
Most of the times, patients are under the impression that mastectomy rules out chances of recurrence. Some think that radiation is not required after mastectomy and side-effects like hair fall and vomiting can be avoided. “The reality is different. Recurrence of cancer is decided by nature of the tumor and not its mode of treatment,” said Dr Sachin Almel, consultant oncologist, PD Hinduja hospital.
He further added that mastectomy did not necessarily mean that radiology was not required. “Radiation is required even after mastectomy in many cases for sterilisation,” he added.
Early diagnosis and better lifestyle remains the key word to safety. Since, India does not have dedicated public health camps women have to depend on self-checks.
“Proper physical exercise, low calorie diet and healthy reproductive factors are things that urban Indian woman have to abide by,” concluded Dr Sareen.
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