Nearly 2,000 Cancer Cases Identified Through Free Cancer Care Project
TIRUPATI: Mobile Cancer Screening Camps under the control of the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) in Tirupati region have identified 1,969 cancer cases in the last 19 months.
Oral cancer emerged most commonly, followed by breast and cervical cancers.
Camps are part of the Comprehensive Cancer Care Project (APCCC), which was initiated on February 4 last year to address the gap in early detection of the disease. This found that only one percent of the Indian population was carried out after the National Family Health Survey.
For this project, Tirupati acted as a pilot region as Nodal Center with SVIMS.
As part of the initiative, two specially equipped pink buses were deployed – one of them was donated jointly by the Ambuja Group and the Rotary Club and the other was jointly by the Vemereddy Prabhakar Reddy Foundation. Each vehicle with approximately RS 3 Crore costs is assigned by 13 personnel. These include a medical officers, radiologist, mammography technician, nurses and support personnel.
The screenings in the buses are carried out by women’s personnel.
According to the authorities, each pink bus organizes two camps a day. These offer oral examinations, mamograms for women over 40 and Pap smear for women over 35 years of age. During the last 19 months, 4.46 Lakh people were investigated for symptoms performed 28,393 diagnostic tests.
Scans 984 Oral cancer, 413 breast cancer and 572 cervical cancer were confirmed.
Dr. H Narendra, President of Surgical Oncology in SVIMS, attributed the incidence of high oral cancer to chew tobacco, alcohol use and smoking. He warned people not to ignore permanent oral ulcers, loose teeth or color changes, stressed that early detection allowed simpler treatment and better results.
“Lifestyle changes and prevention are equally important. To give up tobacco and alcohol, reduce fat, sugar and salt, while more greenery and fruit, daily physical activity and vaccination against Hepatitis-B and HPV can make a real difference,” he added.
Oncologists say that many of the stigmatization, fear and bad economic conditions still prevent screening. They called on people to benefit from free camps, to consult doctors and continue treatment if the results were abnormal.
“Cancer tests usually cost 5,000 RS 10,000 RS in private hospitals. However, they are free and carried out at the gates of people. Participants are enrolled in Aadhaar, receive a unique health identity and go through basic controls. Suspected cases are directed to SVIMs, bus personnel.” He said.
Tirupati Pilot project shows the results of the state government andhra Pradesh is planning to expand the mobile cancer screening program. In order to further strengthen cancer therapy and make sure that patients do not need to travel outside the state, TTD is developed by the International Advanced Cancer Research Center on the SVIMS campus.
