Bangalore, Nov 19 (IANS) A leading corporate hospital and a noted medical foundation in the city Tuesday rolled out a joint campaign to check oral cancer in rural Karnataka where tobacco chewing is a menacing habit.
In the first phase, Narayana Health, a multi-specialty hospital, will take its rural cancer surveillance programme into three villages – Atebele, Anekal and Jigani – across Bangalore rural district to screen the affected people in a mobile clinic of the Mazumdar Shaw cancer centre, located in the health city.
Mazumdar Shaw Medical Foundation, founded by leading biotech firm Biocon Ltd chairperson Kiran Mazumdar, is partnering with Narayana to create awareness across rural areas of the state where diagnosis and treatment for head and neck cancer are absent.
“The campaign is to educate the people on early signs and symptoms of mouth and throat cancer, which are prevalent in rural areas owing to the growing tobacco chewing habit and bridge the wide urban-rural healthcare divide across the country,” Narayana Health chairman Devi Shetty told reporters on the occasion.
Lamenting that 70 percent of the country’s population living in rural areas have only one-third of hospital beds and no access to specialist doctors, Shetty said early diagnosis of head and neck cancer symptoms and treatment were difficult, as 80 percent of specialists live in cities catering to 20 percent of the population.
“As a result, 75 percent of cancers are diagnosed only in its fourth stage when treatment and survival become risky. Our novel programme is to reach out to the rural people and ensure they have access to timely diagnosis and quality healthcare,” Shetty asserted.
A study by the international journal of head and neck surgery revealed that 58 percent of global head and neck cancers occur in Asia, with India accounting for 30 percent of them.
“The programme is an extension of my commitment to my commitment to make cancer care affordable and accessible. Our oral cancer screening programme using mobile technology in some villages has proven to be effective in early detection and intervention,” Mazumdar Shaw said.
Going forward, the programme will be scaled to reach out a larger patient population in rural areas across the country as they are in dire need of diagnoses and treatment.
Head and neck cancer in India differs vastly from western countries as it depends on factors such as food habits, family and personal history.
“The world’s highest incidence of cancers is found in districts of north-east, central and southern India. A belt of thyroid cancer has also been identified in women in coastal districts of Goa, Karnataka and Kerala,” the study pointed out.