What is the issue?
- Lifestyle-related cancers top the chart in the northeast region.
- This has an overall high incidence of cancer in India.
What is the status of cancer in north east?
- A recent report was compiled by the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
- Nearly 4% of the cancer cases detected in Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) are in patients from the northeast.
- It shows Oesophageal cancer is the highest in men followed by cancers of the lung and stomach.
- It also analyses a total of 37,448 cancer cases reported from 11 population-based cancer registries in the States of the northeast from 2012 to 2014.
- Together, they form 33.5% of all cancers in the northeast among men.
- In women, breast cancer is the highest followed by cervix and oesophageal cancer (33.8%).
What are the reasons of the complications?
- A feature that stands out in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura is excessive tobacco consumption.
- People in the region are also very addicted to raw betel nut and its fermented variety.
- Both tobacco and betel nuts are known carcinogenic substances.
- Oesophageal cancer is also linked to consuming extremely hot beverages.
- People who gulped down very hot tea (simmering temperature) were four times more prone to oesophageal cancer.
- There are certain dietary habits that definitely play a role in the increased incidence of cancer in the region.
- The genetic variations as a result of there being a large number of ethnic groups are also a contributing factor.
- Stomach cancer is linked to H. pylori bacteria infection that happens due to contaminated food and water, obesity, and a diet consisting of salty or smoked foods.
- Breast cancer too is linked with obesity and late pregnancies among other risk factors.
- In cervical cancer, the most important risk factor is a Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection that is mainly transmitted through sexual intercourse.
- Multiple sex partners (polyandries and polygamies societies are prevalent in North east region), a lack of hygiene and smoking are some factors linked to the spread of cervical cancers.
What are the challenges patients are facing?
- Most cancer patients have to travel outside the northeast for treatment and care due to an inadequate number of cancer facilities.
- There are only about eight centres that offer various types of cancer care such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy and most of them are in Assam.
- Cancer cannot be treated from afar as therapy is a prolonged one.
- Travelling in the region is not easy due to the difficult terrain and this results in a low compliance of treatment.
Source: The Hindu
