Bhubaneswar: Oncologists working with the government and throughout the state believe that the prevailing cancer cases are not uniform and they vary from region to region.
The findings were shared during a brainstorming session of ‘Regional Round Table Meeting on Breast Cancer’ organised here Wednesday by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Bhubaneswar Chapter in association with state Health department.
Dr Dinesh Pendharkar, Senior Oncologist and Advisor to the state government, said, “Based on our visits and personal experience we have seen higher prevalence of certain types of cancer in certain regions. The trend is not uniform throughout the state. In Gajapati and Nabarangpur, we saw highest cases of cervical cancer while in districts like Balasore and Sundargarh we came across cases of stomach cancer.”
The doctor also appealed to the private doctors to work in tandem with the government doctors to ensure cancer patients do not fail in their treatment due to shortage of funds. Lauding the state initiative of District Cancer Programme, Dr Pendharkar said, “Odisha has been doing great work in the sector by providing free diagnosis and treatment like chemotherapy to the patients.” He also urged the oncologists from the state to come up with their own data supported research and studies on cancer trends of Odisha.
He said, “If everything goes well, Odisha could globally become the most served area with the most satisfied cancer patients in the next two to three years.” Dr RR Satpathy, State Non-Communicable Diseases Nodal Officer, said the state has been providing population based screening of breast cancer in seven districts which would soon be extended to eight districts.
Health Minister Naba Kishore Das in his speech said that the state is empowering the district headquarters hospitals to have adequate diagnosis and treatment services for the cancer patients while funds from the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) which are now being used to boost cancer treatment at government hospitals.
Highlighting the awareness about breast cancer, Nilanjana Mukherjee, Associate Vice President, AMRI Hospital, said, “Breast cancer has been the most frequent disease among women, impacting 2.1 million each year and also causes the greatest number of cancer related deaths. We need to create more awareness among mothers to tackle this.”
