November 5, 2001	Monday	haba’an 18, 1422

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FAISALABAD, Nov 4: Cancer will soon be one of the leading causes of death in Pakistan unless concerted preventive measures are adopted immediately, speakers at the eighth Biennial Cancer Conference, warned the government.

Organized jointly by the Pakistan Society of Clinical Oncologists and the Department of Clinical Oncology of the Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, the two-day conference concluded at a local hotel on Saturday night.

The speakers said that the government and private hospitals lack infrastructure to cater to the growing numbers of cancer patients.

The existing facilities in the Punjab Health Department institutions, particularly the radiotherapy equipment, were in deplorable condition. The machines were obsolete and most of them are out of order. The disparity between the facilities of the health department and the PAEC medical centres was glaring.

“Most patients cannot afford treatment because of high cost of treatment and medicines. A number of patients die only because of fear and lack of awareness that cancer is curable.”

Pakistan Society of Clinical Oncologists President Prof Abrar Ahmad Javed said that in developing countries like Pakistan, cancer would be a leading cause of deaths by the year 2015.

Seventy-five per cent of cancer patients would be found in these countries having only 5 per cent of the resources to fight it. The developed countries will have 5 per cent of the cancer burden and 95 per cent of the resources.

He said that delay in diagnosis was a major factor that makes cancer incurable in most patients.

“Around 40 to 60 per cent type of cancer in Pakistan are preventable. Major factors in most cases in our country are use of tobacco and hepatitis. Control of use of tobacco and vaccination against hepatitis B may save more lives.

“A war against tobacco has to be waged. We have to choose between the public health and the wealth of tobacco companies,” Dr Abrar said.

He stressed the need for concerted effort to educate the physicians, public and patients about cancer with the involvement of the government and media.

The newly-established district governments can play a major role in this respect.

He said that cancer management in Pakistan was related to economic realities. The major referral centres for free cancer treatment of 75 per cent of poor patients of the Punjab and other provinces were the radiotherapy departments of teaching hospitals in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi.

He said that the Punjab government should take immediate steps to provide modern equipment to those departments so that the poor cancer patients could have a meaningful survival and quality of life.

Conference organizing committee chairman Dr Syed Ijaz Hussain Shah said that the oncology department was set up at the Punjab Medical College/Allied Hospital in 1996. At present, the department has a 60-bed ward with a well equipped radiation bank, infrastructure and trained staff.

During the last five years, the department has registered more than 4,000 cases while over 30,000 patients have been treated in the OPD. About 5,000 parties have been hospitalized. Over 45,000 sessions of radiation portals and about 10,000 pulses of chemotherapy have been administered.

He said this department caters to the need of cancer patients of Faisalabad and Sargodha division and part of Lahore division.

At present, three was only one post of assistant professor in the PMC. He demanded creation of additional posts of professor and associate professor for the oncology department in view of the large number of patients, and for the benefit of the medical students.

He said that this department was in need of Linar accelerator and a new Cobalt therapy unit to give state of the art treatment to the patients.

The cost of cancer medicines was high and cannot be met through the Zakat fund.

He said that air-conditioners were installed at the he oncology ward from local resources.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) director bio-sciences Dr Syed Javaid Khurshid said cancer was spreading in under developed poor countries.

Quoting WHO report, he said that new cases of cancer in the world are in the range of 6 million per annum out of which nearly 50 per cent are in the developing countries.

Exact figures from Pakistan are not available, but taking the figures of similar geo-medical zones, it is estimated that more than 250,000 new cases are expected each year, pushing the total number of living cancer patients to approximately 400,000.

About the frequency of different types of cancer occurring in Pakistan, he said that lung cancer tops the list in men and breast cancer in women.

Similarly cancer of mouth, cervix and lymphomas are also prevalent in Pakistan. Explaining regional variation in the incidence of cancer, he said that in men carcinoma of bronchus is reported to be the most common cancer in the southern part of Pakistan. Among women breast cancer does not show any regional variation.

According to him, about 85 per cent of cancer cases were related to environmental pollution, smoking and dietary factors whereas 5 per cent are caused by occupational exposure to carcinogens like asbestos, chemicals and radiation.

“The remaining 10 per cent are because of unknown causes and may be attributed to viruses, genetic and other factors,” he said. These factors and the local and regional peculiarities probably need to be looked into carefully in order to manage the malignant disorders.

Dr Khurshid said that the PAEC was playing a meaningful role in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer through its nuclear medicines centres working in close collaboration with the teaching hospitals.

The commission pioneered the discipline of nuclear medicine and radiotherapy in Pakistan by establishing its first cancer hospital in 1960 in Karachi.

Subsequently 12 more cancer centres were established in different parts of the country while another is expected to start functioning soon in Abbotabad.

“These centres are providing diagnostic and treatment facilities to more than 300,000 patients annually,” he said. These centres were also involved in research and development studies to evolve a better understanding and strategy for the diagnosis, treatment, management and prevention of cancer and allied diseases.

Punjab Medical College Principal Prof Dr Obaidullah Khwaja, organizing committee secretary Dr Shehar Yar, Dr Mehdi Raza Rizvi, Dr Jawed Khurshid; Dr Saulat Nawaz and other oncologists from various medical institutions of the country also spoke at the conference.

STRIKE: The Pakistan Muslim League, supporting the wheeljam strike of Nov 9, has announced that it will organize protest rallies and demonstrations in all tehsils of the province.

The decision was taken at a meeting held here under the chairmanship of Punjab PML vice-president Safdar Rehman here on Saturday night.

The meeting condemned the arrest of Javed Hashmi, and termed it a clear violation of all rules and regulations.

In a resolution, it was demanded that all the arrested PML leaders and activists should be released otherwise the party would launch a country-wide protest movement. The meeting also criticized the government foreign policy.

FARMERS: The Farmers Association Faisalabad has urged the government to distribute barren land amongst tillers of the soil for the promotion of ‘fish culture’.

In a statement here on Sunday, FAF chief Mian Tahir Saeed urged the agricultural research scientists to evolve new varieties of flowers so that they could be cultivated on the available land for promoting its export to Middle East and European countries.