Hyderabad: Incidence of liver, pancreatic and colorectal cancer is rising in India, but unfortunately 70 per cent of patients come to the hospital when they are at a chronic end-stage, stated experts ahead of World Cancer Day observed on February 4.
Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer and in the chronic end-stages only palliative treatment can be offered. According to experts the male/female ratio for liver cancer is 4:1 and the age of presentation varies from 40 to 70 years. The death rate from liver cancer is 6.8 per 1,00,000 for men and 5.1 per 1,00,000 for women.
Dr Arun Kumar Lingutla, medical oncologist at American Oncology Institute said, “The incidence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C is very high in India. We do not have proper screening facilities for these two major diseases due to which they are often not diagnosed properly. At the same time treatment for chronic liver disease needs to have new modalities and methods. With these lacunae the number of cases is increasing, posing a major challenge.”
Experts state that cases of liver, pancreas, colon, lung and breast cancer continue to be the causes of death for an estimated 5,00,000 people every year in India.
The incidence of pancreatic cancer is 0.5 -2.4 /1,00,000 population in males and 0.2-1.8 /1,00,000 population in females. At the same time, incidence of colorectal cancer is 4.3 in males and 3.4 in females per 100,000 population. According to the World Health Organisation, cancer related deaths in India are likely to rise to 7,00,000 by 2016. While experts state that liver tumours remain asymptomatic, those in the pancreas and colon produce symptoms early. Dr Sai Ram of MNJ Cancer Hospital said, “The tumours in the pancreas and colon can be diagnosed easily but patients come too late to the hospital. There are better diagnostic facilities for these two diseases and they can be easily identified.”
Intake of processed food risky
Change in dietary habits from traditional to Western, increasing intake of processed/preserved / packaged foods and decreasing consumption of vegetables and fruits are factors that are probable risk factors for cancers, opine experts.
Senior oncologist Dr M. Vamshi Krishna of Apollo Cancer Hospital said, “Decreasing consumption of vegetables and fruits has been recognised as a probable risk factor.”
“High and continuous intake of processed food leads to higher proportion of free radicals which causes transformation of the body’s cells and induces a potential carcinogenic action.”
Research has also linked eating red or processed meat with increased risk of breast, colon, prostate and pancreatic cancer.
Dr Manoj V. Shrivastav, senior liver surgeon at Global Hospitals said, “Studies conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organisation reported in October 2015 that eating processed meat like bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausages and red meat is linked to cancers of the stomach, colon and prostrate.
In the studies they found that eating fruits protects the upper gastrointestinal tract and vegetables that have fiber protect the lower tract. Fiber is one of the major components to protect against colorectal and also liver cancer.”
Experts also say that industrial and environmental toxins in the air and water also find their way into fruits and vegetables due to which a carcinogenic reaction sets in the body leading to development of cancer cells.
