SHILLONG: Senior Oncologist of Shillong Civil Hospital Judita Syiemlieh said that the incidence of cancer cases in Meghalaya is lesser among the female as compared to male.
She also informed that Syiemlieh also said that East Khasi Hills is among the districts in the whole country with highest incidence of cancer cases.
“I am not sure about the exact reasons behind the incidence of cancer cases among the female in the state. Probably, females are hesitant to come forward due to various reasons,” Syiemlieh said while speaking as one of the resource persons on the topic ‘Burden of oral cancer and challenges in management of oral cancer in Meghalaya’ during the CME programme on oral cancer organised by ENT department, Woodland Hospital here on Saturday.
She urged upon the young doctors to find out the ground reality as to why females are not open to coming forward for treatment if they are suffering from cancer.
Informing that majority of the cases of patients who come for treatment in the civil hospital are those suffering from oral cancer, she expressed concern that there are majority of patients who leave their treatments half way.
“The major treatment we are providing for a cancer patient is chemotherapy. In the past, majority of patients discontinued their treatment,” she said.
“May be they felt that they could not recover from cancer. But things now are improving and majority of the people are taking their treatment seriously,” she added.
According to her, main cause of cancer in the state is use of various forms of tobacco.
She said that the causes of cancer among male due to tobacco use is 65.2 per cent, while among the female it is 42 per cent.
Syiemlieh said that the incidence of cancer cases can be brought down if the campaign against the use of tobacco can be aggressively carried out throughout the state.