‘Colorectal cancer cases on the rise’

May 02, 2016 12:00 am | Updated 05:43 am IST - CHENNAI:

A few decades ago, colorectal cancers were uncommon. However, their incidence is on the rise in the country, and doctors are increasingly beginning to see cases among young people, said experts.

At the launch of a comprehensive colorectal clinic at Fortis Malar Hospital, Deepak Subramanian, consultant, minimal access and bariatric surgery, said young patients with colorectal cancers often came in late and had more aggressive forms of the cancer. “Changing food habits in India with low fibre, high fat diets and high red meat consumption may all have led to the increasing incidence. Positive food changes in young adults could help bring the number of cases down,” he said.

The need for screening and prevention was highlighted by Prof. Joel Leroy, co-director, EITS/IRCAD, France, a reference training centre in minimally invasive surgery. “We are constantly trying to develop surgery techniques that are less invasive and this is possible because of increased screening of patients and cases coming in early,” he said, adding that a clinic such as this one would help both prevent and treat colorectal cancers.

C. Palanivelu, chairman, GEM Hospitals and Research Centre, Coimbatore, said colorectal cancers were completely curable in the early stages and with improved techniques, the approach to surgery had now changed. The clinic, Dr. Subramanian said, would focus on preventive and screening programmes and apart from cancers, would also treat other common diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, haemorrhoids and others.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.