Breast cancer overtakes cervical cancer as most common, deadly killer disease now: Dr Vijay Jagad

Chandigarh: A team of doctors from Park Hospital Mohali including Dr. (Brig) Harinder Pal Singh director medical oncology, Dr Vijay Jagad senior consultant surgical oncology, Dr Muveen Kumar Mittal consultant medical oncology, Dr Ashish Kamara consultant nuclear medicine and Dr Jobanjit Kaur consultant radiation oncology addressed a press conference here on Thursday on rising trends of breast cancers in India on breast cancer awareness month.

PARK Hospitals is North India’s biggest super specialty hospital network with 19 hospitals, 3500 beds, 800 ICU beds, 14 cath labs, 45 modular OTs  and over 1000 doctors.

Dr Harinderpal Singh director medical oncology said,” For more than 4 decades, cervical cancer was the major killer disease in India. But breast cancer is on a steady rise and  now overtakes cervical cancer as the most common and deadly killer disease of the new era.  Breast cancer impacts 2.1 million women each year and the country sees 1.90 lakh new cases every year.”

Dr Muveen Kumar Mittal consultant medical oncology said, “A few decades back, breast cancer was seen only after fifty years of age, and the number of young women suffering from this disease were lesser. Almost 65% to 70% patients were above 50 years and only 30 to 35% women were below fifty years of age. However, presently, breast cancer is becoming more common in the younger age group and almost 50% of all cases are in the 25 to 60 years age group. More than 60% of the cases in India present in advanced stage accounting for poor survival and high mortality.”

According to Dr Vijay Jagad senior consultant surgical oncology, 50 % of breast cancer patients in North India are in 25 years to 60 years age group.

“Breast cancer accounts for 27 % of all cancers in females in India. If we do not work on creating awareness and early detection of cancer, the figure could be much worse.” Dr Vijay Jagad also shared that breast self-examination and mammography are simple techniques to deduct breast cancer cases at early stages.

Dr Jobanjit Kaur consultant radiation oncology shared that the number of cancer cases are expected to rise to 29.80 million by 2025.