The incidence of oral cancer is the highest in Odisha among States due to widespread intake of tobacco products in various forms.
Dr BK Dash, Director of the Utkal Institute of Medical Sciences (UIMS), the only nuclear medicine centre in Odisha, said this here on Monday while speaking at a workshop on ‘Modern cancer detection and treatment facilities’ for creating awareness on Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan that enables early diagnosis of cancer and other conditions. “Acute lymphocytic leukemia, gastrointestinal tract cancers and carcinomas of breast, cervix and ovary in females has seen a tremendous rise globally and is one of the leading causes of death” Dr Dash said.
He said cancer killed nearly 5.5 lakh people across the country in 2010. The 30-69 age group accounted for 71 per cent of the deaths. It accounted for eight per cent of the 2.5 million total male deaths and 12 per cent of the 1.6 million total female deaths in this age group. Many cancer patients can be cured if detected early and appropriate treatment is given in time. UIMS is the first in the state to establish PET-CT scan centre providing a complete nuclear diagnosis of cancer.
“Earlier, people used to do X-ray, CT scan, MRI and ultrasound tests to detect cancers. These tests do not constitute a complete diagnosis and only work on structural and morphological activity of the cancer cells. But the PET-CT scan will work on functional activity of the cancer cells enabling complete diagnosis of the disease,” said Dr Dash.
PET provides the unique advantage of showing cancer tissue in any part of the body in very early stage at an expense of Rs 25,000 per diagnosis. Apart from cancer diagnosis, PET is the only method to assess the functions of different areas of the brain or to image receptors in the brain. For heart patients PET can provide unique information on viability of myocardial tissue to avoid unnecessary bypass surgeries, Dr Dash said. For the first time in Odisha, Utkal Institute of Medical Sciences (UIMS), Bhubaneswar had commissioned a PET-CT scan centre on September 1. More than 300 cancer patients have already been diagnosed.