New Delhi: Advocating the need for
awareness on early diagnosis for prevention of cancer on the
eve of World Cancer Day, leading health experts feel over 30
per cent of such cases can be prevented by simple measures
like regular exercise and quitting smoking.
According to National Cancer Control Programme, around
nine lakh people die due to cancer every year in India, while
WHO says that annual global deaths due to the disease would
jump to 17 million by 2030 from a projected 7.6 million this
year if people do not take urgent action to avoid risk
factors.
"Many cancers can be prevented through simple measures
like giving up smoking, limiting alcohol intake, taking
healthy diet and doing regular exercise," says Dr Samir Parikh
of Max healthcare.
"No longer we are just looking at secondary
prevention, which was basically seeing how we could modify
patients life to decrease the risks or how to detect cancer
early," Parikh says, adding "We`re looking at primary
prevention, which means stopping yourself from being exposed
to cancer-causing features".
Another oncologist Dr Amit Bhargava from BLK Memorial
Hospital says, "Now the focus is on cancers caused by
infectious diseases, like cervical, stomach and liver
cancers."
"The primary prevention that everybody`s talking about
now is cervical cancer vaccination," he says.
PTI