One million cancer patients in Bangladesh
There are about one million cancer patients in Bangladesh at present and every year about two hundred thousand patients are affected by cancer and about 150,000 people die of cancer.

/Politics News Articles/ - May 08, 2006 - There are about one million cancer patients in Bangladesh at present and every year about two hundred thousand patients are affected by cancer and about 150,000 people die of cancer.

Dr Md Habibullah Talukder, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Cancer Epidemiology of the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital said.

He also said, 'This statistics is found with the coordination of the statistics of the neighboring countries and demographic pictures of Bangladesh. For the accurate statistics, cancer registry is very necessary for the country. But there is no cancer registry system, which is necessary for the identification of the disease. By this registry report, this would help the government to take initiative for preventive action'.

In a registry report, there should have many information of a patient under a specific collection process, its preservation and analysis, which would found in a report format. This report would help to find out reasons for disease and would give idea of the risk factor of the disease. This registry system is two types. One is hospital-based registry and other is population-based registry system, he added.

Dr Habibullah further said that the government has started population- based registry system, which would cost US$ 10,000 per year under the 'Biennial Plan of Action Project for 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 fiscal year.

Prof SAR Choudhury, Medical Advisor of Roche Bangladesh Ltd, said cancer causes 7 million deaths annually in the world and it is the second most common cause of death in developed countries. In Europe, cancer claims almost 1.7 million lives each year.

He also added that lung, colorectal and breast cancer each claim over one million new cases per year worldwide.

In developed countries, rate of breast cancer patients are increasing day by day, while in western countries, cervical cancer patients are higher.

Dr Habibullah said, 'Female of western countries are habituated with free and early sexual life. For this reason, most of them are suffering from cervical cancer. Awareness is very important to reduce the rate of cancer patient in the country'.

In developing countries, especially Bangladesh, India and other South Asian countries are in high-risk condition in breast cancer. Lack of awareness is the main reason for increasing breast cancer.

Proper education on preventive action of breast cancer, religious factor and social taboo make the situation difficult taking any action for the prevention of breast cancer.

Dr Habibullah said, 'Rate of breast cancer patients are higher than cervical cancer patients in developed countries. Therefore, rate of oral cancer patients are also increasing day by day in the South Asian region. Habit of smoking with tobacco and white leaf and also alcohol cause oral cancer'.

Low budget, shortage of manpower, lack of cancer registry software is main problems in functioning of the registry with high level of quality. For completeness of the information such as staging, clinical extent, performance status, detailed treatment and follow-up, more active participation from the clinical departments is required, he added.

According to the draft annual report 2005 of the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital, top five cancers in male are - lungs 24.7 per cent, unknown primary site 8.1 per cent, larynx 7.3 per cent, lymphatic and lymph node 7.3 per cent and esophagus 5.1 per cent. To five cancers in females are cervix 24.6 per cent, breast 24.3 per cent, lungs 5.5 per cent, oral cavity 4.1 per cent and ovary 3.8 per cent.

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Anita Mathur
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