20% of all cancers ‘occur in the gastrointestinal tract’

An estimated 20% of all cancers occur in the gastrointestinal tract, assistant professor at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Dr. Waseem Khwaja states in a health information and education brief issued here on Thursday.
Dr. Waseem quotes cancer specialist Dr. Qasim as saying that 750 patients of various cancers are getting their treatment in the oncology department of PIMS. Data collected from various departments of the hospital show that 340 cases of bone cancer have been treated in 2007 alone. According to medical specialist Dr. Professor Jamal Zafar, 10% of all admitted patients in his medical ward are suffering from various cancers and most of them accessed the hospital after developing complications such as bleeding, shock, intestinal obstruction, and severe blood loss.

Gastroenterologist Dr. Professor Javed Butt states that 8 to 9 patients suffering from cancer of the oesophagus are diagnosed at PIMS every month. The surgical department of PIMS treated various kinds of cancers last year including cancer of the rectum (59 cases), colon cancer (541 cases) oesophagus cancer (503 cases), stomach cancer (30 cases), breast cancer (446 cases), thyroid cancer (45 cases) and skin cancer (120 cases).

According to Dr. Haroon Khan, in charge of the Hospital Management Information System, the pathology department received 590 biopsies for breast tumour diagnosis, 26 biopsies of lungs and 33 biopsies of cervix last year.

Cancer diseases are second only to cardiovascular diseases as the cause of death. Although cancer mortality is still very high, many advances have been made in terms of treatment and understanding of the disease at the molecular level. For most people, the word cancer implies certain death, although this is not always the case. Physicians have an obligation to be honest with their patients, combining realism about the prognosis with compassion and understanding.

In most cases of cancer, the cause of illness remains unknown. However, several factors have been identified as having an association with the development of cancers. Smoking is associated with cancer of the mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, larynx, lungs and bladder; ultraviolet light is associated with cancer of lips and skin; and alcohol is associated with cancer of the mouth, pharynx larynx, oesophagus, colon and rectum. Certain drugs are also associated with cancer of the bladder and bone marrow. Asbestos causes lung cancer; estrogens are associated with cancer of the female reproductive parts; and vinyl chloride causes cancer of the liver.

Similarly, various occupational and environmental factors have also been clearly implicated as a cause of cancers. The latter, including tobacco, are generally responsible for 80 to 90% of all human cancers.

“Cancer control consists of a series of measures based on present medical knowledge in the fields of prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, after-care and rehabilitation. All these measures are aimed at significantly reducing the number of new cases, increasing the number of cures, and reducing invalidism due to cancer,” the executive director of PIMS Dr. Abdul Majeed Rajput states in the brief.

Dr. Rajput believes that primary prevention offers the greatest hope for reducing the number of tobacco-induced and alcohol-related cancer deaths. It is estimated that control of tobacco smoking alone can reduce the total burden of cancer by over a million cancers each year. He said legislation also has a role to play in primary prevention. An important area of primary prevention is cancer education, which should be directed at high-risk groups. The aim of cancer education is to motivate people to seek early diagnosis and treatment.

Some of the early warning signs of cancer are a lump or hard area in the breast, a change in a wart or mole, persistent change in digestive and bowel habits, persistent cough or hoarseness, excessive loss of blood during menstrual periods or loss of blood outside the usual dates, blood loss from any natural orifice, a swelling or sore that does not get better, and unexplained weight loss.

Courtesy: The News, 4/4/2008