Article in Times of India - Breast Cancer rising fast

[sumeet_shah]

timesofindia.indiatimes.com...

Have a look at the article.

Daily, in some or the other newspaper, we are very much reading reviews on breast cancer. I am specifically pointing to this review, because they have brought out a very important point -

Though the numbers of breast cancer is much higher in West and lesser in India, India ranks number one, when it comes to numbers of healthy years of women lost to breast cancer. It might sound complicated, but just understand one point that, survival in India is very low

Also, try to read the last chart on this page:

breastcancerindia.net/bc/st...

(The chart is titled 'Globocan 2008, Cancer Fact Sheet).

You will see the following:

US Cases: 1,82,000 Deaths: 40,000

India Cases: 1,15,000 Deaths: 53,000

The important thing above is, see the ratio. Divide the numbers of cases newly detected, by the number of deaths. For US (1,82,000 / 40000), the ratio is around 4.5:1 (or 9:2). Which means that for every 9 patients newly detected with breast cancer, there are two deaths due to breast cancer. For India (1,15,000 / 53,000), the ratio is roughly 2:1, which means that for every 2 patients newly detected with breast cancer, there is one death due to breast cancer.

If you see such ratio for other nations and continents mentioned above, it is a clear indication, that we have a long way to go. Even China, other South East Asian nations, many African nations, have a better survival.

For members here on this forum, reading these statistics, do not worry or get tensed reading this. All of you have actually got the most appropriate treatments already, you would fall in the survival statistics of the US. My idea of bringing this to your notice is, there are many women out there, who are coming late, who are not getting adequate treatment, who do not have money to even start the treatment and so many reasons. We have to unite and fight this and ensure that each and every woman suffering from breast cancer in India, MUST get a standard treatment. I know it sounds toooooo big a statement from a small man like me, but we have to start somewhere. We have to.

[rohankhandelwal]

You are right Dr. Sumeet...I also posted about this on my blog.

[MsLockYourPosts TeamBCI]

I think that it is especially important for breast cancer survivors to tell their story. It's very easy to think it will never happen to you. Suddenly I found people all around me, including family members, dealing with breast cancer. For me the good news is that almost all of them found it early, or even if they didn't, but went through treatment, are survivors. I know that a couple of people on this site are blogging about their experience which hopefully will help with awareness and removing the stigma that seems to come with all cancers.