Debnarayan Dutta*

HOD - Radiation Oncology, Amrita Institute of Medical Oncology, Kerala, India

*Corresponding Author: Debnarayan Dutta, HOD - Radiation Oncology, Amrita Institute of Medical Oncology, Kerala, India.

Received: May 30, 2018; Published: June 22, 2018

Citation: Debnarayan Dutta. “Antismoking Campaign: What is the Right Way Forward”. Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 2.4 (2018).

  Cancer is a health problem in India. There are sudden surge of newly diagnosed cancer patients in India. Recent surge in cancer patient number is mostly attributed to increased awareness, better cancer detection tools and also increase in number of cancer treatment facility. It is assumed that by 2020 every household will have at least one cancer patient survivor or have experienced the treatment related issues.

  Cancer in Indian subcontinent and in western world have a contrasting difference in presentation, cause of the disease, treatment options and facilities and most importantly in outcome. Cancer in Indian patients is mostly related to tobacco usage or environmental reasons, whereas western patients are mostly related to genetic and unknown factors. Interestingly, environmental and tobacco related cancers are ‘preventable’ cancers. Unfortunately, 70% of cancers in India are preventable, more sad is they are detected in advanced stage with only minimal chance of cure. In Indian subcontinent, especially in smaller towns and cities there are severe discord between the huge patient number and lack of treatment facility. In India, late diagnosis, relative aggressive in nature and lack of treatment facilities make outcome of tobacco related cancers dismal. More than 70% of patients are in advanced disease and only 30 - 40% of patients have relatively long survival. Tobacco related cancers are mostly cancer of head and neck region, mostly in oral cavity, oropharynx and laryngeal cancers, lung cancer, oesophageal cancers and bladder cancer. Oral cavity cancers are most common cancer in Indian male patients. Nearly 70% of male cancers in this region are of oral cavity region.

Copyright: © 2018 Debnarayan Dutta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.