50% of cancer cases curable

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Una, Jan 17 (UNI) Fifty per cent of the total 2,000 new cases of cancer recorded in the country every year were avoidable, a senior doctor at Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC) has said.

Eighty per cent of first and second stage cancers were curable, while only 20 per cent patients of third and fourth stage were likely to survive, IGMC's Head of the Department of Community Diseases, A K Bhardwaj, said.

He was addressing an advocacy workshop for members of the Panchayati Raj Institutions on Tobacco and Cancer Control at Dulehar village in Haroli block of Una district.

About 1.3 million people, out of 5.8 million new cases of cancer, die every year worldwide, he said, adding that one death in every seven cases of cancer was due to smoking.

Mr Bhardwaj said nearly 70 per cent of the cancer cases in the country were detected only in the last stage and that diminished their chances of survival.

Dr Rajinder Prasad Medical College and Hospital's Professor in the Department of Community Medicine, Dr Saligram, said the incidence of cancer in the country has doubled over the last 30 years due to change in lifestyle.

He said teachers and peer pressure could play a vital role in curbing the menace of smoking at a younger age.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Guest and Santokhgarh MLA Mukesh Agnihotri said health infrastructure in the constituency was being given a fillip.

He said besides construction of four PHC buildings in the area, the Haroli hospital had been upgraded to the status of a First Referral Unit at with an investment of Rs 20 lakh.