: Cases of Breast Cancer are on the rise in India, says oncologists at Apollo Cancer Centres #IndiaNEWS #India New Delhi: Breast cancer is raging in India as an epidemic even though the incidence is

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Cases of Breast Cancer are on the rise in India, says oncologists at Apollo Cancer Centres #IndiaNEWS #India
New Delhi: Breast cancer is raging in India as an epidemic even though the incidence is lower compared to the West, said oncologists from the Apollo Cancer Centre (ACC), Hyderabad.
In a webinar organized by The Times of India in collaboration with ACC, Hyderabad on Saturday, senior oncologists stressed the importance of early detection of breast cancer and highlighted the advancements in its treatment.
According to statistics, breast cancer constitutes 26 per cent of all cancers diagnosed in women, said Dr TPS Bhandari, senior consultant, surgical oncologist, and oncoplastic breast reconstruction surgeon.
He said, One in 22 women get breast cancer at some point in their lifetime and if diagnosed early, the cure rate is high. Until a decade or two, it was cervical cancer that was quite common among the women in the country. But, now, breast cancer cases are on the rise. It is considered a lifestyle disease and it is due to the rapid westernization, urbanization and adaptation of newer lifestyles, said Dr Srinivas Chakravarthy Gummaraju, senior consultant haematologist and medical oncologist.
Pointing out that the incidence of breast cancer though is less in India than in the West, he said that unlike in India, one in five women get breast cancer in the Western countries. But, since the population of our country is high, the proportion would also be high, he added.
Awareness and early detection
It is imperative to go for a proper screening to detect breast cancer at an early stage.
According to Dr Bhandari, a one-centimetre lump is the smallest size that could be palpated in the breast which would have about one million cancer cells. Imagine, the magnitude of the problem and the chances of it spreading to other parts of the body, He said that instead of focusing on prevention, importance should be given to early diagnosis. He said that there are two ways of diagnosing breast cancer in a woman. One is by mammogram and the second one is through a recently launched EasyCheck-Breast.
Even though it has become a standard protocol that only women are allowed inside the mammogram suite and it is done by women, still, there is a lot of hesitation among the women, he said, adding that patients are hesitant to undergo mammogram as it involves going to hospitals and speaking about their breasts to others.
In the case of EasyCheck Breast, a 5ml of blood sample is 5 ml of blood sample drawn from the patient and circulating cancer cells in the blood are detected which would identify early breast cancer.
Further, Dr Bhandari said that if breast cancer is diagnosed at stage zero where cancer has not become invasive then the cure rate is about 95 to 99 per cent but if cancer cells spread to the nodes then the cure rate falls to 65 to 70 per cent and if it spreads to other parts of the body, then the result is less.

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