Cancer on a rise

INDORE: In a shocking revelation, around 3,000 patients have registered so far at the cancer hospital here in Indore and as many as seven new cancer patients are identified daily in the city.
A doctor at the MGM medical college radiology department said that number of patients is so large that even if there are three machines, it won’t be sufficient to deal with the issue.On an average, the department gets around 210 patients a month, he further added.
As per him, three types of cancers namely buccal cavity cancer (33 percent), cervical cancer (19 percent) and breast cancer (17 percent) contribute around 70 percent of the total patients.
Level of awareness among people has also increased significantly over the time. There are a large number of people who come for test though they are not found positive to cancer.
Mainly cancer of intestine or similar ones, which could not be detected by naked eye, are detected late these days, he added. Though the number of cancer patients detected is increasing year after year, doctors attribute the rise to increasing population of Indore. In 2009, a total 2875 new patients were detected. In year 2010, total 2966 new patients were detected and in 2011 the number increased to 3008.
This year, the number has already reached 2,900. If average is to be considered it is likely to be more than last year.