National Day of Cancer Awareness

This National Day of Cancer Awareness, the focus is on ensuring awareness about the disease, its forms, its causes and its prevention.Any disease or disorder is a result of the human body's failure to perform the normal mechanism. When the old cells in the body do not die and instead they grow out of control, forming new and abnormal cells, these cells may form a mass of tissue known as Tumor while some cancers do not have tumors like Leukemia.

A tumor in any part of the body can be life-threatening at the later stages. While with the recent technology and innovations, the treatment for many cancer types is available but there should be an early detection to ensure reduced damage and a better quality of life after treatment.

Bladders, brain, cervical, colon, esophageal, ovaries, pancreas, lung, stomach, testicular, prostate are some of the various body organs that can have cancers. While cancers can further be divided into various categories, the major ones include:

Sarcomas: This type of cancer develops in the bones, cartilage, fat, muscle or other connective tissues.

Carcinoma: These are mostly diagnosed cancers which begin in the skin or tissues that line the internal organs.

Leukaemia: Known as blood cancer. It does not usually form solid tumors.

Lymphomas: Lymphomas are cancer of the Lymphocytes, basically the immune system.

Melanoma: The melanomas are cancers that arise in the cells that make pigments for the skin.

How is Cancer Diagnosed?

Some of the cancers can be identified during the routine check-ups like breast cancer, skin cancer, mouth cancer, testicular cancer, etc before their symptoms start to showcase and become serious. In most of the cases, cancers detected in the early stages are treated and the cancerous cells while reducing damage to normal cells nearby. The treatments for cancer are improving with technology and becoming less invasive. The treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Each of these used to remove cancer cells via different methods.

The surgery is used to directly remove the tumour or the cancerous tissue, while chemotherapy uses chemicals to kill cancer cells and Radiation therapy includes using X-rays to kill cancer cells

Every cancer is different in different individuals, with each type of cancer; the researchers develop subtypes as it requires a different treatment approach

What is oncology?

It is a branch of medicine dedicated to diagnosing, treating and researching cancer. The physician who works in the field is called an oncologist. Some oncologists focus solely on particular cancer types or treatments. They develop a customised action plan for the patient's acre depending on the type, stage and location of cancer. The number of oncology specialists may vary depending on the factors stated above. The field of oncology offers three main specialties including medical, surgical and radiation along with numerous sub-specialities.

How to manage the side effects of cancer treatment?

One can choose from a broad range of therapies designed to combat side effects and maintain well-being with supportive care services. Cancer has a lot of impact on the human brain and body, the psychology as well the immunity gets affected and hence the treating cancer has various side effects. The side effect that comes along with cancer includes pain, fatigue, depression and other side effects that come with it.

The supportive care services include nutrition therapy to help prevent malnutrition and reduce side effects, Naturopathic support to use natural remedies to boost energy and reduce side effects.

To rebuild strength and overcome some of the physical effects of treatment, Oncology rehabilitation is needed along with the counselling, stress management techniques and support groups, which are part of the mind-body medicine to improve emotional well-being.

The future of Treatment

The technology advancement is helping them in improving the patient's care and treatment with an increased level of personalization. Doctors are beginning to offer treatment options based on the genetic changes occurring in a specific tumor. Various tools are being developed to determine cancer at an early stage and also to reduce the recovery time like the innovative new diagnostic tool, the genomic tumor assessment examines a patient's tumor genetically to identify the mechanism that caused cancer. Genomic tumor assessment may result in a more personalized approach to cancer treatment.

On the account of the national cancer awareness day 2019 in India, the focus is on initiating campaigns and save people from cancer by spreading awareness about the disease as the causes include various lifestyle elements like smoking, being overweight, non-nutritious diet, tobacco chewing, not exercising, etc.

It is essential that this national cancer awareness day, one is being aware of the disease and not reducing their quality of life with believing in social myths about the disease, goes through regular checkups and ensures that they are cancer-free.

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