To mark the Cancer Awareness Week, experts talk about different types of cancers and the best way to prevent & cure them. Pioneer Health brings you a lowdown
PRESENT STATUS
In India, approximately 4.5 lakh people are suffering from some type of cancer and there are more than seven lakh new cases being registered yearly with 5,56,400 deaths which are known to be cancer-related. It is estimated 71 per cent of all cancer-related deaths are happening in the age group between 30 to 69 years. “About hundred types of cancer are known in humans, and all are different from one another. From newborn babies to aged people, everyone is at risk of cancer and its cases are higher in metros than in rural areas due to the changing lifestyle. Some obvious reasons due to which cancer is on a rise in India is due to tobacco, excess exposure to ultraviolet radiation, emissions of ionizing radiation and consuming carcinogenic chemicals and food,” Dr Hari Goyal, oncologist, Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon, says.
GROWING CANCER IN MEN & WOMEN
Breast cancer: India is now witnessing more numbers of young patients being diagnosed with breast cancer. Increasing numbers of patients are in the 25 to 40 years of age. “Second most commonly found cancer in women age 50 or older is colon cancer. Then there are endometrial cancer, lung cancer, cervical cancer, skin cancer & ovarian cancer. Among men, lung, oral & stomach cancers are the leading causes of death due to this noxious disease,” Dr Goyal says.
Head and Neck Cancer (HNCs): “While smoked tobacco and alcohol are the major causative factors for HNC worldwide, smokeless tobacco, betel nut, and Epstein-Barr virus are etiological agents responsible for it in the Asian population. Tobacco smoking and chewing and using snuff is the single largest (85 per cent) risk factor for head and neck cancer. Frequent and heavy alcohol consumption raises the risk of developing cancer in the mouth, pharynx, larynx, and oesophagus. Using alcohol and tobacco together increases this risk even more,” Dr Kanika Sharma, senior consultant, Radiation Oncology at Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, says.
TREATMENT
There are mainly three pillars of treatment namely surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Targeted treatments and immunotherapy are the recent advances which are still in clinical trials. Targeted Treatments are still not widely used for all cases, but can prove to be a milestone in cancer treatment in near future. There is an upcoming role of immunotherapy also to tackle this deadly disease. — Dr Kanika Sharma
WAY TO GO
Hepatitis B: It can increase the risk of developing liver cancer. Its vaccine is recommended especially for health care or public safety workers who might be exposed to infected blood or body fluids.
Human papillomavirus: It is a sexually transmitted virus that can lead to cervical and other genital cancers and squamous cell cancers of the head and neck. The vaccine is recommended for girls and boys age 11-12 and men and women age 26 or younger who didn’t have the vaccine as adolescents.
— Dr Kanika Sharma
IMMUNOTHERAPY WITH DENDRITIC CEllS
One of the most recent innovating cancer treatments is ‘Immunotherapy with dendritic cells’. Countless research and treatment facilities worldwide are increasingly turning towards this dendritic cell therapy. Prostate and pancreatic cancers have even got FDA approval for using Immunotherapy for its treatment in USA.
Treatment: Although Immunotherapy has been there in the country in the form of vaccine and injections since the last four to five years, its results and success rate were not very promising and encouraging. On the other hand, the effectiveness of a treatment with dendritic cells has been encouraging. It has been proven in the case of skin, kidney, breast, pancreatic, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer. There are effective implementations of the therapy with lANEX-DC. This has been brought in the country by a company called lDG India.
The treatment provides a special type of vaccination required to treat any type of cancer (except-blood cancer) at any stage. The vaccination is made from patient’s blood and infused in the body which boost their immunity and help in curing the disease naturally. A patient can take the vaccination while taking chemotherapy, it will averse the side effects and help a patient live a routine life.
Comparison: Treatment with dendritic cells is also often used when conventional therapies have not been successful. In addition, treatment with dendritic cells is a gentle treatment in contrast to other forms of treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation. Also compared to other forms of treatment, side effects only occur very rarely after vaccination with dendritic cells.
There are other similar medical facilities already available in India that have been in use for a few years and which gives vaccination in six cycles. But at lDG India clinic, the same treatment is done in only one cycle and the treatment is like injecting immunity medicine into the body.
Result: The results are astounding and encouraging. It utilises better technology, technique and scientists. Cancer patients who have used this therapy as compared to those who underwent the previous and other versions of Immunotherapy, there has been an increase in quality of life, helped in prolonging the lifespan, controlling and the abolition of symptoms by facilitating them live a routine life.
— Dr Hari Goyal