Swasth Mitra
AWARENESS &PREVENTION OF COMMON CANCER IN WOMEN – Report
Sat, 16 Sept 2023, 11:00 am to 12:15 pm IST
Awareness & Prevention of Common Cancer In Women
MD – Radiation oncology
Radiation Oncologist, Aster group of institutions, Bangalore
“Stay Aware Stay Safe”
In India, women’s health is not an openly discussed topic. Always putting others first, Indian Women tend to always put their families first. In some cases, it might even be considered taboo to talk about health irregularities connected to women. This often comes at the cost of their own health. Signs and symptoms of conditions chronic disease are ignored and passed off as just tiredness. As a result, chronic diseases including cancer, in most cases are detected late and thereby posing several challenges in treatability. This needs to change immediately!
Women represent the cornerstone of a family’s overall health. Enhancing and ensuring health awareness in women can lead to improved health for children and families. There are no second thoughts, “Women’s Wellness should not be neglected at any cost”.
Summary
Dr Suneetha shared everything that a common person would like to know about the disease, starting from development of disease, from its common symptoms , how to control / prevent through lifestyle changes and controlling environment or having early tests and vaccinations till what can be the treatment.
Dr Suneetha emphasized that “key is the early detection “. Early mammogram , pap smear
And vaccination!!
Cancer cases are global healthcare burden. 58% of deaths are caused due to cancer in Asia which is also a healthcare burden. Breast cancer is the common malignancy in the world, forming 17% of all the cancers in India, and 27% of the female cancers. Cervical cancer is in the third place after lip and mouth cancer in India. More the advance stage of the disease, more aggressive treatment and cost goes up consequently.
Dr Sunitha provided very elaborated explanation of how the disease is developed, and knowing this definitely it can help all to detect at the early age.
Lifestyle and environmental factor can cause certain cancers too. So if we can’t control the virus related / genetic (causing 5% of cancers ) related cancer development, we can always limit the probability by opting healthy lifestyle. There is no one detection test. Go To General practitioner first if found some of the common symptoms as below.
Common Symptoms of Cancer
- Pre or Post menopause bleeding
- In between the cycle or post sexual bleeding
- Change in bowel habits
- Blood in stool
- Sore or wound not healing for more than 3 weeks
- Ulcers not healing – should not be neglected
- Change of voice
- Abdominal pain, increase in the abdominal gastric
- Un explained, weight appetite loss
- Persisting fever for few weeks.
- Change in mole size (skin cancer)
- Difficulty in swallowing, drinking
- Lump or swelling in body, Lump in the breast.
- Constant fatigue, weakness
- Any irregularities in the body
Breast cancer causes 24% of the global population. Mostly diagnosed in late stage 3 or stage 4. Breast cancer is more common in younger population. But slowly mortality is dropping due to available treatment in this field.
Dr Suneetha asked to focus on 2 steps to control the risk :
Step 1- first focus on controllable risk like obesity, control of oral contraceptive, alcohol, tobacco etc which may lead to cancer at the later stages.
Step 2- While we do not know “why this to me?”, we always know “what we can do to detect it at the curable stage” , which is annual screening to get detected at the early stage. Screening with mammogram, pap smear tests should be regularly done for women. It is hard to miss the symptoms with little alertness.
Dr Suneetha explained about HPV vaccination, cancer may be caused due to HPV infection for some and it can be detected by pap smear as well.
She explained the Mammogram Screening schedule for various age group-
- Women of age group 45 to 54 yrs. should get the mammograms done every year.
- Women of age group 55 and older can switch to a mammogram every other year or continue to yearly mammograms.
- Screening should continue for all women (women till the age of 80 years age) and who is expected to live at least 10 more years.
- Start screening a decade earlier is case of first degree relative.
- Early start and late menopause increase risk of breast cancer due to more exposure to estrogenic hormone.
She talked about early symptoms of cervical cancer, need to get alert whenever there is post menopause or post intercourse bleeding.
- Should be done after 5th -10th day of period cycle / month
- Look for changes such as retraction, lump, change in breast shape etc.
WHO – Cervical Cancer Prevention Vaccination Schedule
- HPV vaccine is recommended at age of 11-12 years. (Vaccination can be started at age 9 both for boys and girls)
- 2 doses of HPV vaccine are recommended for most persons starting the series before their 15th year. The 2nd dose of HPV vaccine should be given 6-12 months after the 1st dose
- 3 doses of HPV vaccine are recommended for teens and young adults who start the series at
- age 15 through 26 years. The 3 doses schedule is 0, 1-2 and 6 months
After marriage or start of sexual activities – vaccination is not recommended .
In Summary – Key points and Take Away
- Critical illness can strike anytime and anyone
- Regular careful screening will help early diagnosis
- Indulge in healthy habits and healthy lifestyle
- Cancer treatment is expensive and lengthy, don’t let cancer ruin you
- Invest in additional Health Insurance with critical cover