National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Dreaded Due To Ignorance

Despite the availability of the facilities, lack of awareness among the rural people is posing a problem towards the mitigation of deaths due to cancer

By THAKUR AMGAI

Surgery in cancer hospital : Improved services

The growing trend of smoking cigarettes and chewing tobacco is increasing the number of cancer patients in Nepal. Chewing tobacco and smoking is the chief reason of cancer in Nepal.

A survey shows that the number of people affected by smoking is as high as 78.3 percent in the rural areas of the country. According to the survey conducted by the Mrigendra Samjhana medical trust, the proportion of smokers is around 60.7 percent male and 48.4 percent female in Terai; 78.3 percent male and 58.9 percent female in rural hilly areas; and 64.5 percent male and 14.2 percent female in the Kathmandu valley. The survey shows that Jumla is the most affected region where 84.7 percent male and 71.1 per cent female smoke.

Thanks to higher number of smokers, the number of cancer patients, too, has increased. Smokers are more likely to be attacked by cancer than non-smokers. Doctors claim that the risk of cancer is fifteen times more to smokers than to none smokers. The risk of early death is also high for smokers. Dr. Arati Shah, director of Bhaktapur cancer hospital claims that only five percent of smokers affected by cancer can survive.

Another study shows that 25 percent of women die because of breast and womb cancer in Nepal. According to the doctors, these two kinds of cancer are the most easiest ones to treat. The malignant parts can be removed by surgery.

The rise in the number of cancer patients arriving to the hospital also shows the increase. While the number of patients who came for check up at the hospital in 1999/2000 - the year the hospital was established - was 781; it rose to about 3000 in the next four years. 608 patients were admitted for treatment in 1999, while the number rose by more than three times in 2003/2004. Similarly, only 66 patients had undergone radiotherapy in the first year; and now the number is more than 400.

However, this number is far lower than the number of actual cancer patients. Due to lack of awareness, many patients never visit a hospital. The number of cancer patients is estimated to be about 40- 50 thousand.

However, the treatment of cancer is available in Nepal at reasonable costs now. Until a few years back, there were no facilities available for the treatment of cancer in the country. The government-owned Bir Hospital was the only place where a limited kind of treatments of cancer used to be provided. Now, not only the Bir hospital has more facilities to cure cancer, there are two other hospitals catering to the needs of cancer patients. Bhaktapur cancer hospital established and run by Nepal Cancer Relief Society (NCRS) and the B. P. memorial cancer hospital at Bharatpur are in operation.

Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of tissues. It is not totally curable. But early detection makes it possible to remove the affected part by surgery or kill the affected tissues. Some kinds of cancers of external organs like breast can be treated by surgery. Others (of external organs) can be treated by radiotherapy. Cancer of internal organs including blood cancer can be treated by chemotherapy. All three technologies of treatment are available in all three hospitals in the country.

In the recent years, the treatment of cancer has been made much easier in Nepal. However, the facilities have not been utilized to the fullest due to lack of awareness. The number of people dying of cancer and the low turn out at the hospitals shows that the increase in the facilities to treat cancer patients has not been able to address the problem completely.

The cost of radiotherapy in Nepal is Rs. 5,000 while the same service is charged about Indian Rs. 40,000 in Indian hospitals. At present, only about 400 patients avail of the facility every year. The radio therapy machine has a life span of 10 years from its installation and it has the capacity to serve 1,000 patients a year.