Jammu, Nov 7: Around 1500 cancer patients have been registered in Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu so far in 2022. Last year, the number of patients was 1850 while in the year 2020, there were 1742 cancer patients in the region—of them 997 males and 745 females.
According to famous oncologist Dr. Ashutosh Gupta, who heads the Radiotherapy department of the Government Medical College and Hospital Jammu, the prevalence of lung cancer is more in men while the incidence of breast cancer prevails much in women.
Referring to his 2020 study on cancer patients at GMC Jammu, Dr. Gupta said the top five cancers in men were lung cancer (32%), head and neck cancer (22%), oral cancer (19%), genitourinary cancer (14%) and oesophageal cancer (13%).
“The trends remain the same in the following years as lung cancer was leading in men,” he said.
In women, Dr. Ashutosh Gupta, who is also the HoD Radiotherapy Department, said the prevalence of breast cancer (35%) was highest followed by cervical cancer (19%), hepatobilliary cancer (16%), ovarian cancer (15%) and lung cancer (15%).
Asked about reasons for the rising lung cancer in men in the Jammu region, he said smoking is the main cause of various tumours, particularly lung cancer. “And such cancers may rise in the near future due to increased smoking rates in children and adults in the region,” Dr. Gupta said.
Similarly, he said the leading causes for rising breast cancer in women are: avoiding breastfeeding, unhealthy lifestyle, lack of exercise and prioritising fewer children. He said that early detection of breast and cervical cancer should be encouraged in women through health education programmes and early diagnosis of the disease.
Pertinently, in the year 2020, the highest 685 cancer patients from Jammu district were screened/treated at GMC Jammu, followed by 161 from Kathua, 153 from Udhampur, 134 from Rajouri, 118 from Doda, 112 from Samba, 94 from Reasi, 88 from Poonch, 51 from Kishtwar, 41 from Ramban, 24 from Kashmir, and 51 from other states/UTs.
Meanwhile, people in the age group 60-80 had the highest (42.52%) prevalence of different cancers followed by 40.65% in people in the age group 40-60, 11.21% in the age group 20-40, 4.32% in the age group over 80 and 1.29% in people with age group 0-20.
