Let’s invest in fight against cancer

 SEEING the picture accompanying our story on Page 7 in Tuesday’s paper, the reader, would have captured the full extent of the damage inflicted on Simit Boris.  

Words spoken by his elder brother Saramun tell the distressing tale of the inevitability of death through terminal cancers: “Tell our story so that more people are aware of this deadly disease,” the patient’s guardian tells our reporter.

Many a Papua New Guinean would easily identify with Saramun because they have had the same feeling of helplessness in seeing a loved one die of cancer.  

Many more would have a story to tell of a friend, colleague or neighbour who had succumbed to the ailment.

It is not a good feeling to see a loved one waste away and die a slow and agonising death. The feeling is made even worse when your doctors tells you that he or she would have saved a life if drug x or equipment y were available. And drug x and equipment y might not be exactly out of reach for the public health system but we have simply not got our priorities right to invest in them.

The country’s response to cancer is far from encouraging though it can and must be improved. The battle must be fought basically on two fronts; with the individual’s vigilance to look out for symptoms and have cancer detected and diagnosed at the earliest possible stage, and with the public health system’s response to the onslaught of cancers. 

Medical professionals like gynaecologist Mathias Sapuri have affirmed that changes in lifestyles have given rise to a range of cancers. And the country’s public health system is inadequately resourced with modern equipment and manpower to tackle this disease. 

Sapuri told a recent media conference that cancers had taken over from pregnancy-related complications as the largest killer of PNG women now. Breast, cervical and en­dometrial cancers are on the rise given that Papua New Guineans have, by and large, become more affluent. Changing diets and other lifestyle practices give rise to changes in disease patterns.

Boris’ is yet another sad tale of someone losing the battle against cancer in the country’s struggling cancer treatment centre at Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae. 

Dr John Nibblet at Angau’s cancer ward says the centre needs five linear accelerators. The centre now uses only a Cobalt 60 radiotherapy machine.  

“Yes, there is a need for significant investment by the government into the fight against cancer,” says Nibblet.

Linear accelerators benefit patients by helping medical experts deliver enough radiation to a moving tumour to eliminate it while minimising the amount of healthy tissue that is exposed to the radiation. 

The technology is important because cancer tumours and lesions do not stay in the exact same place after each radiation therapy session. 

When a patient gains or loses weight or experiences other physical changes, organs can shift even slightly. So it is  imperative that before each treatment, physicians can identify exactly where cancerous cells end and healthy cells begin. 

Sapuri says the Cobalt ma­chine has largely been replaced by linear accelerators around the world. One linear accelerator may cost between K10 and K15 million. 

“We can afford a linear accelerator or two at K15m each – one for the cancer unit at Angau and one in Port Moresby. We need to invest in that direction to be prepared for the diseases that come with change in lifestyles. It’s just a matter of priority,” Sapuri says.

While investing in such equipment may take a while to materialise, individually we can take up the fight against cancer.  The message is simple: Report anything unusual in the body at the earliest possible occasion. Treatment is available but its success is determined by the stage at which cancer is diagnosed.

Perhaps unknown to some, there is a vaccine for the human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer. The Gardasil vaccine is administered in three doses over six months on females aged between nine and 25.  

According to Sapuri, West New Britain alone is carrying out a Gardasil vaccination programme which has proven quite successful so far. It is advisable that other provinces follow.

The news on cancer might be as grim as the situation at Angau’s cancer ward but when we invest in equipment and manpower we can expect some relief.