Community health education seminar on ‘Aging and Cancer’ held

Mohali, January 19, 2019: Senior citizens from tricity attended a health talk on ‘Aging and Cancer’ at Shalby Hospital, Mohali today. Addressing the gathering, Dr Purvish Parikh, Group Oncology Advisor for Shalby said that approximately 11,00,000 new cancer cases are diagnosed in India every year. Since cancer incidence increases with advancing age, it is a growing problem in the retired community. For instance half the patients diagnosed with lung cancer are above the age of 60-yr for male and female both. He further said that in the age group of 65+ years, doubling of cancer incidence is expected by 2025. The common tumours in older adult are breast, prostate, lung, colon, head-neck, ovary, cervix, hall bladder, stomach, leukemis and lymphoma. What the community needs to understand it is important of being aware of unexplained changes to their bodies. Some typical sign and symptoms of cancer include changes in bowel habits, sore that doesn’t heal, unusual bleeding or discharge, unexplained blood in urine, stool, between periods, in vomit, prolonged cough, thickening or lump, indigestion or difficulty in swallowing, obvious change in wart or mole, nagging cough, breathlessness, persistent hoarseness, unexplained weight loss and unexplained fever. Discussing on how to reduce your risk of developing cancer, he said that smoking or tobacco use in any form should be avoided, one should be physically active, eat healthy, less calorie, low fat diet with plenty of fruits and vegetable as well as do regular exercises, said Dr. Parikh adding iIt is also important to undergo regular annual checkup from age of 40 year onwards.