Cancer cases continue to rise, Dr says
PAPUA New Guinea has the third highest incidence of cancer in Oceania, a doctor says.
Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) consultant clinical oncologist Dr Karthik Periasamy said with the increase in population in recent years and robust screening and diagnostic methods, cancer cases would continue to rise.
According to Manson’s Tropical Infectious Disease (23rd edition), cancer incidence is the frequency of occurrence of new cases of cancer in a specific population over a given period of time.
Periasamy said the main aim of having the cancer centre in the country was to diagnose cancer early and provide optimal treatment.
“Although the incidence of cancer may increase due to robust screening techniques, we can reduce the mortality (deaths) by treating the cancer effectively,” he said.
Periasamy said in 2018, there were around 18 million new cancer cases in the world and around 9.5 million cancer deaths with a mortality rate of more than 50 per cent.
He said for PNG, there were around 12,000 new cases and around 7,500 cancer deaths with a mortality rate of over 60 per cent.
“In developed countries, the mortality (rate) due to cancer is less, it is around 40 per cent and in developing countries, the mortality rate is almost 60 per cent.”
Periasamy said lung and breast cancers were the most common in the world followed by colorectal, prostate, stomach and liver cancers. In PNG, breast, oral cavity and cervix cancers were the most common ones followed by liver, colorectal, lung and thyroid cancers.
3 comments
From My Observation:
Eatting Too much processed Food, unhealthy lifestyle (smoking and etc) are cause of cancer apart from you inheriting it from either your parents, grandparents or a relative.
To reduce cancer, one needs to change their lifestyle and ofcourse eat alot of fresh garden produce.
There is more that needs to be said to men especially when it comes to sex.
They need to clean (wash) their private parts well before sleeping with their wives.
In that way, it will help prevent their wives from getting cervical cancer.
Men need to be well educated, when it comes to that area, especially in the rural settings, settlements and even urban centers.
Prevention is better than Cure.
Whatever medical advice or awareness campaigns that we can get from our medical professionals to help prevent this incurable disease will be of great help.
Share your knowledge with us for the better of the people of this Nation.
Together we can fight this chronic infested disease.
A lot of the cancers are preventable. Unfortunately the top 4-5 common cancers in PNG are linked to smoking, alcohol, betelnut and sexual promiscuity.
Improving levels of clinical care of cancers by training of manpower capacities in pathology, respiratory, gastroenterology, radiology and oncology will improve quality of life and prolonged life.
These trainings are done overseas NOT in PNG. PNG continues to pretend to have local expertise. Its about time for radical decision not resorting to same decisions over the years that have not worked.
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