Christian Medical College, Vellore, launched a free cancer screening programme for the women of Vellore on Friday. C. Rajendran, Collector of Vellore, inaugurated it by releasing balloons at a public meeting at CMC car park ground in the evening. He said that nearly one lakh cases of breast cancer were identified every year in India.
This was due to lack of awareness of the causes of cancer. Eating junk food was said to be one of the reasons for cancer. Therefore, people should avoid junk food.
Dr. Lakshmi Seshadri, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, CMC, said that under the programme, initially, cancer screening camps would be held twice a month at selected places in Vellore. Women in the age group of 30 to 55 would be screened. The programme had already been taken up in Dr. Ida Scudder Ward of CMC Hospital. A camp would be held at the ward on Saturday and 50 women would be screened. The aim of the programme is to reduce the incidence of cancer among women in Vellore. Aravindan Nair, Professor, Department of Surgery, said that 14 lakh women were affected by breast cancer every year in the world.
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Cervical cancer was the commonest cancer among women in India, followed by breast cancer. But 90 per cent of the patients go to the hospital after the disease had reached an advanced stage, unlike in the Western countries, where they go very early.
Rosaline Jayakumar, Dean, College of Nursing, CMC, said that despite the educational programmes on cancer awareness available through pamphlets and the television, awareness of cancer or the symptoms of cancer was still lacking among the rural women in Tamil Nadu.