MULTAN, May 10: As much as 80 per cent of the cancer patients, who come to the Nishter Hospital, cannot afford treatment of the disease and 85 per cent of them come to the hospital at an advanced and incurable stage.

These figures were presented by Dr Abrar Ahmed Javed, head of the Nishter’s oncology department, in a lecture he delivered at the 10th anniversary of the existence of Cancer Society Multan (CSM).

He said 65 per cent of the cancer patients were found illiterate and, thus, were prone to quackery, alternative treatments and disinformation. He said apart from the aforementioned reasons, financial and cultural constraints also caused delay in diagnosis of the disease at an early stage.

Dr Abrar said 40 per cent of the patients had tobacco-related cancer. Most common cancers in Multan among male patients were head and neck (27 per cent), lung (eight per cent) and urine bladder (six per cent) while among female patients the common type of cancers were breast (29.5 per cent), head and neck (10 per cent) and ovary (6.34 per cent).

He said the cancer incidence had been increasing world-wide as 10 million near cancer were being reported every year. Of them, four million were surfaced in the developed countries while six million in the developing and under-developed states. He said the ratio of five-year-survival among cancer patients in the developed countries was 65 per cent while in the developing countries it was only 20 per cent.

Talking about the incidence of the disease in Pakistan and its treatment facilities, Dr Abrar said according to an estimate, some 150,000 new patients caught with the disease and only 50,000 of them could be seen at some 25 cancer treatment facilities in the country. He said, however, the disease was preventable in 70 per cent of the cases and could be cured in 60 to 65 per cent of the patients if detected at an early stage.

He said for prevention and detection at an early stage an awareness campaign was needed.

CSM president Gulzar Alvi said at present the society was taking care of some 162 cancer patients who otherwise could not afford the cost of their treatment.