SHILLONG, March 19: In a bid to minimise the incidence of cancer, the state government has launched the First Cancer Care (FCC) project as part of the Meghalaya Mission Cancer Prevention and Early Detection.
The FCC project is initially being undertaken in East Khasi Hills due to the high incidence of tobacco related cancer cases in the district, which ranks second in the country when it comes to tobacco related cancer cases among males and 11th in the case of females.
“We are launching the FCC project in East Khasi Hills separately to have a bigger impact and outreach. It is more intensive. We are just starting it and we have outsourced it to Apollo Telemedicine and Networking Foundation,” Senior Oncologist of Shillong Civil Hospital, Dr Anisha Mawlong told The Shillong Times on Sunday.
Informing that the FCC project is being funded by the World Economic Forum, Dr Mawlong said that the state government along with World Economic Forum and Apollo Telemedicine and Networking Foundation are involved in his project.
The project, she said, will be undertaken for a period of 18 months, while adding that the state government will carry the project forward and likely launch it across the state.
Dr Mawlong said that NEIGRIHMS and Shillong Civil Hospital will be assisting in the screening camp to be organised by Apollo Telemedicine and Networking Foundation, which will focus on three parameters — detection, awareness and screening.
“We expect to detect a large number of cancer cases during the screening. Both NEIGRIHMS and Shillong Civil Hospital are prepared to handle the load once we start having the screening camp,” the Senior Oncologist said.
According to her, the target at present is to identify the cause(s) for high incidence of cancer cases in the state.
“We will publish data from this exercise and even compile a report on the factors and causes for the high incidence of cancer cases in the state. But this will be done at a later stage,” Dr Mawlong said.
