Ludhiana News- Top 5 Cancers in Punjab

Prostate Cancer curable if detected early: Dr. Navdeep Singh

Ludhiana, September 15, 2013 : As the people and medical fraternity from across the globe will celebrate September being World Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, Dr Navdeep Singh; one of the top most Oncologist of Ludhiana; took the initiative to create awareness amongst senior citizens in Senior Citizens Bhawan, near Sacred Heart Convent School, B.R.S Nagar regarding prevention and early detection of prostate cancer. An informational session was held where Dr. Navdeep explained the symptoms and detection of prostate cancer.

September is celebrated as the ‘World Prostate Cancer Awareness Month’ all over the world to create awareness among people about this cancer and its treatment. Dr Navdeep Singh, Head of Cancer Department, Global Heart and Super-Speciality Hospital, Ludhiana took the initiative to create awareness that; “Prostate Cancer is amongst top 5 cancers in Punjab. It’s still a prevalent misconception in the society that this cancer is incurable and the patients don’t live a normal lifestyle after treatment. The only issue remaining now is to make people aware of the importance of early detection of the disease so it can be treated effectively.” Also, free PSA - Prostate cancer detection test camp was announced which will be organised in Global Heart and Super-Speciality Hospital, Ferozepur Road, Ludhiana on September 21. The PSA test normally costs around Rs 1,200 - Rs 1,500 in the market, but will be conducted free on September 21 for all the participants.

Dr Navdeep explained that, "this deadly disease occurs in males about 50 years of age. The symptoms include dribbling (inability to control the release of urine from bladder) or increase in frequency of urination. The cancer is curable if detected at early stages. Amongst the causes to prevent the cancer, most prominent is to avoid obesity and detection test if prostate cancer runs in family history. Dr. Navdeep futher advised the seminar participants to take good amount of red vegetables especially tomatoes as they have Lycopene, which is an anti-cancer agent.”

Dr. Navdeep also emphasized strongly that Medical science has made tremendous breakthroughs in last few years and treatments are now available for diseases which were earlier thought to be untreatable. Prostate cancer is treated by surgery, Chemotherapy and radiation. For early detection, a simple blood test called PSA (Prostate specific antigen) is conducted and all males above 50 years are advised to take this test once a year.

Finally, on the eve of World Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Navdeep Singh concluded by saying “I advise people that they make changes in their lifestyle, avoid obesity by developing an exercise routine in daily schedule. They should increase the percentage of red vegetables like tomatoes in daily food intake as it reduces the chances of getting cancer.”