’The newer victims of cancer are the young’

Unhealthy lifestyle leading to most cancers in urban areas; most prominent is rise of breast and tobacco related cancers among young

'The newer victims of cancer are the young'

Unhealthy lifestyle leading to most cancers in urban areas; most prominent is rise of breast and tobacco related cancers among young

There were 928 patients seeking radiation therapy at Ruby Hall Clinic in 2007. 2010 saw 1700 cancer patients registering for therapy; almost double the number in merely four years. And if you think that these statistics are hyped, then consider this. At Prashanti Cancer Care Mission where 2945 patients were given chemotherapy in 2009, 3559 cancer patients were treated in 2010, a rise of more than 20 percent in barely a year.

Oncologists across the city opine that it is alarming to see younger patients walking into cancer care clinics with serious problems. Oncologist Minnish Jain from Ruby Hall Clinic said that he has treated patients as young as 18 years old for tobacco and gutkha related cancers, which according to him is the most urgent concern as of now.

"As opposed to the West, the biggest concern is that patients getting affected with serious cancers are 20 years younger comparatively. So we have people at a productive age of 35 or 40 walking in with bad cases of head, neck or colon cancers. Most of these cancers are lifestyle driven and are due to unhealthy habits like no exercise, overweight, popping hormonal pills, smoking, and tobacco chewing etcetera. And people think cancer is for the old and don't even get themselves screened but we would like to tell them that cancer is not just about the old anymore," he said.

Dr Chaitanya Anand Koppikar, managing trustee and director at Prashanti Cancer Care Mission agreed that the young especially need to be careful.

"I would say that the highest number of cancer cases are either head, neck or tobacco related. Another type of cancer that is steadily increasing is breast cancer, which is also directly related to the sedentary urban lifestyle. We see a rise in the working women population because they have late pregnancies and start breastfeeding much later. Also they tend to take too many self medicated hormonal pills and survive on junk food which is contributing to the rise," said Koppikar.

Another cancer that is lifestyle related is cervical cancer among women but instead of urban, more cases are reported from rural areas. It is mainly because of high sexual promiscuity in rural areas and poor hygiene habits.
Urban women at least take precautions and go to gynaecologists where they get screened but rural women haven't even heard of such diseases," said Koppikar.