-National Cancer Awareness Day
- National Cancer Awareness Day is observed every year on November 7 in India.
- National Cancer Awareness Day was first announced by the Indian Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, in September 2014
- November 7 is the Birth anniversary of Madame Curie, who discovered the radium and polonium.
National Cancer Awareness Day to raise awareness about the second leading cause of death globally, Cancer.
In 1975, National Cancer Control Programme was started in India.
The vision behind it was to establish cancer treatment facilities in the nation. In 1984-85, the vision changed to focus on early detection and prevention of cancer.
It can occur anywhere in the body & if not detected at the right time, it can increase risk of death.
Lung, prostate, colorectal, stomach and liver cancer are the most common types of cancer in men, while breast, colorectal, lung, cervical and thyroid cancer are the most common among women.
The most common cancer differs in each gender, prostate cancer and breast cancer are respectively.
Cancer Early Diagnosis
Prevention is the most cost-effective public health strategy in noncommunicable disease. Effective interventions to successfully prevent some cancers exist, but have not been fully implemented.
However, prevention alone is not enough. Millions of people globally will still develop
cancer because not all cancers are preventable, causes of cancer are multifactorial and existing prevention strategies do not reach entire populations.
Accordingly, diagnosis and treatment should be available, and the early identification of cancer should be prioritized. Detecting cancer at its early stages enables treatment that is generally more effective, less complex and less expensive.
Defining Early Diagnosis and screening
Early diagnosis is defined as the early identification of cancer in patients who have symptoms of the disease. Cancer early diagnosis and screening are both important components of comprehensive cancer control, but are fundamentally different in resource and infrastructure requirements, impact and cost.
The objective is to identify the disease at the earliest possible opportunity and link to diagnosis and treatment without delay. When done promptly, cancer may be detected at a potentially curable stage, improving survival and quality of life.
There are three steps to early diagnosis:
- Awareness of cancer symptoms and accessing care.
- Clinical evaluation, diagnosis and staging.
- Access to treatment, including pain relief.
screening aims to identify unrecognized cancer or its precursor lesions in an apparently healthy, asymptomatic population by means of tests (e.g. HPV assay), examinations(e.g. VIA visual inspection with acetic acid), imaging(e.g. mammography) or other procedures that can be applied rapidly and accessed widely by the target population.
Screening differs from early diagnosis in that an entire target population is evaluated for unrecognized cancer or precancer and the majority of individuals tested will not have the tested disease.
Impact of Early Diagnosis
There is consistent evidence that the early diagnosis of cancer, combined with accessible, affordable effective treatment, results in improvements in both the stage of cancer at presentation and mortality from cancer.
In one study, patients who experienced a short delay (<3 months) experienced an absolute 7% greater likelihood of survival from breast cancer compared with those who had moderate delays (3–6 months) in care.
While improving early diagnosis generally improves outcomes, not all cancer types benefit equally. Cancers that are common, that can be diagnosed at early stages from signs and symptoms and for which early treatment is known to improve the outcome are generally those that benefit most from early diagnosis. Examples include breast,
cervical, colorectal and oral cancers.
KEY MESSAGES
- Delays in cancer care are common, resulting in lower likelihood of survival, greater morbidity from treatment and higher costs of care. Late-stage presentation and inability to access care are particularly common in LMICs, resulting in avoidable deaths and disability from cancer.
- Early diagnosis strategies improve cancer outcomes by providing care at the earliest possible stage, offering treatment that is more effective, less costly and less complex. Early diagnosis is an important public health strategy in all settings.
Finally… When your life defeats you what will you do..?
But ,Let’s Start New Chapter in your Life.
You can be a victim of cancer or a survivor of cancer, It’s a mindset. Cancer cannot cripple love, it cannot shatter hope, it cannot conquer the spirit.Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you. All things are passing,
One day at a time, one step at a time. Do what you can, do your best.The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it,you could beat cancer by the way you live.