As the global coronavirus pandemic strings out anguish, despondency and pathos for humankind, the World Cancer Day is likely to be marked quietly. Yet the commemoration is aimed at raising awareness about cancer, which, as a killer, is only second to heart disease.
Cancer kills 10 million people every year, 70 per cent of the deaths in low-to-middle-income countries, with the annual economic cost estimated at $1.16 trillion (Sh116 trillion). A third of cancer cases are preventable; 3.7 million lives could be saved yearly by implementing resource-appropriate strategies for prevention, early detection and treatment.
The causes of cancer are classified according to the types of cells they start from. There are five main types. Carcinoma commonly leads to breast, prostate, lung and colon cancer, while sarcoma causes leiomyosarcoma, liposarcoma and osteosarcoma.
Lymphoma and myeloma cause cancer that begins in the cells of the immune system. It can affect the ability of the cell to produce antibodies effectively. Leukaemia affects the white blood cells and the bone marrow and causes brain and spinal cord cancers, commonly central nervous system cancers.
Some causes are benign while others can grow and spread, leading to growth of cancerous tumours.
Factors affecting patients’ risk of developing cancer include alcohol consumption, weight gain or obesity, diet and nutrition and tobacco use, which is responsible for around 22 per cent of cancer deaths. Other factors include ionising radiations.
Reducing exposure to risks such as alcohol, tobacco, obesity, physical inactivity, infections, environmental pollution and occupational carcinogens is highly recommended as it can help to prevent up to a third of cancers. Early detection helps to improve chances of successful treatment, often at a lower cost, with fewer or less significant side-effects for patients. This involves regular and cost-effective tests.
Cancer staging, essentially the classification of cancers by the anatomical extent of the disease, is important to patient care, research and cancer control. Once a cancer stage is known and understood, it becomes the basis for deciding the treatment and prognosis. It can also be used to inform and evaluate treatment guidelines and constitutes vital information for policymakers developing or implementing control and prevention plans and research.
Awareness is also important to encouraging and lubricating survivorship, which focuses on the health, physical, psychological, social and economic issues affecting people after the primary treatment.
Today, in Geneva, the Union for International Cancer Control plans to run the “I Am And I Will” campaign, which is aimed at making a pitch for mass vigilance and participation in the prevention and control of cancer. And even in a world that has been made inward-looking by the seemingly Sisyphean slog of containing a pandemic, their rallying cry is propitious: “Together, our actions matter!”
