Gut cancer goes after the young

HYDERABAD: Hot spicy curries at home, fast food outside. The result: Increasing cases of oesophagus cancer among Hyderabadi youth. Oncologists are alarmed that one-third of all cancer cases in the city now occur amongst the youth ��� in some cases, the afflicted are still in their teens.
Quoting numbers, Prof S V Ratnam of the Nizam���s Institute of Medical Sciences said 10% of all cancer cases reported are of the oesophagus."One-third of all these cases are amongst the youth," says Ratnam.
Dr P V Naidu of the Indo-American Cancer Institute and Research Centre concurs: "In the last two months, at least three cases of oesophagus cancer with the afflicted being merely 18 has been reported to our establishment." While the reasons are not difficult to guess, doctors attribute this phenomenon to changes in lifestyles and eating habits.
The inclination of the young towards fast foods and pre-prepared meals, which are nearly always high in fat, is a major cause, doctors say. Added to this is the reduced preference of the young for vegetables and fruits which have a less corrosive effect on the food pipe, say doctors.
"If you want to avoid cancer of the oesophagus, desist from fast foods and pickles that have a high content of salt and colours. Some of the colours could be carcinogenic," experts point out.
Also, resist imbibing liquor too often and puffing away like a chimney, doctors advise. Internationally, these two have been found as causing oesophagus cancer, besides many other diseases. The first symptom of the disease is almost always difficulty in swallowing.
There is the feeling that food is getting stuck, often behind the lower end of the breastbone. At first the problem is only with solid food but later even semisolids and liquids can cause problems.
Men are two to three times more likely to have it than women. Every story has a silver lining and this one has it too. The turmeric (haldi) used in Indian cooking has a compound called curcumin, which goes a long way in preventing oesophagus cancer.