World Cancer Day

4th February is celebrated as World Cancer Day with the underlying objective of creating awareness about this dreaded, yet treatable disease. Theme for 2022 is – Close The Care Gap. Worldwide, around 2 crore people are diagnosed with cancer each year, (India estimate – 12 lakhs) making it one of the commonest disease worldwide. Increased awareness about initial symptoms, when to seek medical help, diagnostic tests and various treatment modalities (both new/advanced and conventional) is crucial in making an early diagnosis. Cancer diagnosed at early stage is treated with curative intent. Lack of awareness results in delayed diagnosis and poor outcome.
On this day, we call upon all people to join hands in fighting cancer. Let us try to create awareness, bust myths and make efforts so that every cancer patient gets the adequate treatment he/she deserves. Despite availability of all the resources, technologies, expertise and infrastructure in our country, a lot of our patients cannot get access to cancer treatment. The reasons can be manifold including, financial, social, educational, logistics, beliefs, past experiences, etc. One such example wrong belief is that cancer spreads after biopsy. Biopsy is essential for diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It does not result in spread of cancer. Delaying biopsy cause increase in cancer stage, turning a curable disease into incurable one. The ultimate objective is to decrease death from cancer, which can only be achieved if we are able to recognize and close the care gap. Additionally, risk of developing cancer can be reduced by not using tobacco, maintaining body weight, eating a healthy diet, doing regular physical activity and not using alcohol.