By
Vishal Bhidu
A slew of activities designed to create awareness on cancer with the participation of three eminent cancer specialists namely Consultant Breast Onco-surgeon Dr Nita S Nair, Consultant Surgical Oncologist Dr Rajesh S Shinde, and Consultant Medical Oncology at Apollo Hospital Navi Mumbai Dr Tejinder Singh from India were held on the island. From a Scientific session on neuro surgery on May 24 to a Scientific Session of Oncology on May 26 and a Health Talk on Cancer Awareness and sensitization facilitated by the Rotary Club of Bagatelle and the Apollo Information Hub Mauritius, the events saw an interesting participation of experts and the public at large with the eminent cancer specialists shedding light on cancer and its various implications.
At the outset, Managing Director at Regenesis Ltd Nusrat Munir who is also the facilitator behind the visit of doctors and setting up of the Apollo Information Hub Mauritius told: “The Apollo Information Hub Mauritius has sprung up a solution which is mostly designed for people looking for undergoing overseas treatment where they don’t know where to go and who to contact. So, as a part of it, we have decided to set an office based here where anybody can walk in and get ready information pertaining to treatment along with consultation on facilities available in India.”
In her address, Dr. Nita S Nair defined cancer: ‘It’s just an abnormal change in the body where individuals and medical experts try to gauge the risk factors and among which is breast cancer counted as the most common across the world both in India and Mauritius. “
She emphasised: “There is a need to know what your risk factors are and that every breast lump felt is not going to be cancer where there is a need to be evaluated where failure to do so is a missed opportunity.”
The consultant in Breast Onco-surgeon added that most cancer would not cause pain till the last stage when there is a need to be more aware and conduct screening and self-examination, in case the patient is unable to do so, they should seek a medical health care provider. Of course, there is a need to stop aping the West where we need to go back to our roots which helps reduce the risk of cancer being closely associated with lifestyle.
The cancer expert also urged for more regular screening among women where during a video promotion campaign in India, it was shown that a husband gifted his wife a mammographic voucher to get herself tested on her 40th birthday. The bottom line is to help create awareness and talk more about the issue since it is a very normal thing to do.
She threw insights on the right time to do screening while advocating mammography to be conducted once in 2 years once someone reaches the age of 40 to 75 while self-breast examination should be conducted every month. “There is a higher risk to the tune of 80 percent to develop breast cancer in India and as we compare statistics to the US where 1 in 8 women are at risk in relation to 1 in 22 women in Rural India and 1 in 64 women across Rural India. There are differences across different spaces based on lifestyle and urbanization.”
On the other hand, the Consultant Medical Oncology Dr Tejinder Singh commented on the number of patients visiting the hospital every year where he says certain cancer types can be prevented while most of them are not preventable. In the latter case, there is the element of life expectancy and the more people grow old, the population in the age range of 70-80 where out of 10, there are three at risk of developing cancer.
“The crux lies in the awareness that we need to pick on earlier where the bottom line lies in curing the disease that leads to survival,” says Dr. Singh. He shared: “The youngest breast cancer patient was 18 years old girl while the youngest patient of colon rectum was 14 that shows it’s not always the people in old age group who are detected with cancer.”
In his observation, Consultant Surgical Oncologist Dr. Rajesh S Shinde drew a comparison between the West and Asia, including Mauritius on stringent and well-informed guidelines. He spoke on the GI effect where colorectal cancer is considered the second most common cancer form where for instance in Asia and as well as in Mauritius, there are 6 cases per 100,000. Reason why there are no stringent or well-informed guidelines on the spread of GI cancer while the same is well-informed on the spread of this cancer form.
.
“There are various symptoms as we speak about Colorectal cancer hinging on the need to understand the warning signs such as loss of weight and appetite where the medical practitioner would do well to ask patients more in terms of suitable background for investigation. Anemia can also pose as a warning and iron deficiencies among males.”
There were several questions addressed from the audience ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic and cancer treatment to breastfeeding and cancer. Dr Nair told one fact: “Breast cancer comprises of risk factors not preventive factors while breastfeeding is very protective and reduces risk.”
