HYDERABAD, May 31: Doctors urged people at different functions held to mark the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ to give up smoking or chewing of tobacco in the shape of mainpuri and gutka, which they said were mainly to blame for rising number of oral cancer patients in the country.

They described mainpuri and gutka chewing as 50 times more dangerous than smoking and a major cause behind cancer and cardiac illness.

Khalid Mehboob of Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre said at a programme organised by the Hyderabad Cancer Society that tobacco consumption was one of the biggest challenges confronting people today. Addicts initially felt inclined towards cigarette smoking at a very tender age, he said.

Out of 90 per cent tobacco-related oral cancer cases, 82 per cent pertained to mouth and throat and the survival ratio among cancer patients who lived for five years was 51 per cent while 48 per cent lived for 10 years after they were diagnosed with cancer, he said.

Mr Mehboob quoted a study conducted by the American Cancer Society, which puts the number of cancer patients at 28,900 annually.

According to the Nuclear Institute of Medical Radiotherapy (NIMRA) Hyderabad, 3,000 cancer patients are registered each year, he said.—Correspondent