The warning is grim, to say the least. Cancer will see a 70 per cent increase in incidence worldwide from 14 million patients in 2012 to 24 million in 2035. This alarm bell has been sounded by none other than the World Health Organisation (WHO). Even more ominous does the scenario look with the poor nations of the world sharing the greater portion of the cancer victims and the consequent economic fall-out. The low-and middle-income countries are exposing themselves to the scourge of cancer on account of adapting themselves to western lifestyle, fast food, alcohol, sedentary life, rich food with the additional hazard of poisonous contamination or adulteration. One marked difference between the rich world and the poor world today is the reduced consumption of tobacco in the former as against greater prevalence of smoking in the latter.
This does not necessarily mean that awareness about cancer prevention relating to other important issues such as food habit, inactive lifestyle among people in the developed world is up to the mark. In fact, contrary to it, many people are totally ignorant that food habit has anything to do with cancer. In the United Kingdom alone, one-third of the common varieties of the disease is preventable. By keeping body fit and active and eating healthy diet, the Britons can keep the disease away. There is no reason why it should be any different for people in the developed world or for that matter in the countries where it is a fad to follow the West.
Sure enough, many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have their own problems. They are neither here nor there so far as their struggle for overcoming poverty, ill health on the road to a decent life is concerned. Even too much dieting may cause cancer. Those forced to eat cheap and adulterated food over a long period of time run the risk of getting the disease as well. Their problem is further compounded by the fact that tobacco use in empty stomach wreaks far greater havoc than in people who eat healthy food and in reasonable quantity. Dr Christopher Wild, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer claims in the preface to the World Cancer Report 2014 that '50 per cent cancer cases could be avoided.' The need is to focus on the tobacco industry, not just in the developed world where the market has shrunk, but in other parts of the world, he elaborates.
As many as one billion deaths from cancer are forecast in China alone this century. There is no estimate for India but that second most populous country in the world is not likely to lag far behind on this count. Notwithstanding the fact that Bangladesh has passed a law banning smoking in public places and making the practice liable to fine, the law's enforcement is more conspicuous by its violation than otherwise. Then there is widespread use of seasoned (black) tobacco leaf chewed with betel leaf, areca nut, lime and catechu (khair) in this country. Regular consumption of tobacco, lime and catechu in such doses puts people at risk of developing cancer. These are shady areas where little attention is paid to. If anti-tobacco campaign has gained some ground in this country, the focus is solely on smoking -cigarettes or bidis. But hardly any such campaign has ever targeted the consumption or use of raw tobacco in various forms.
Countries like Bangladesh face the difficult choice of waging a war on their peoples' bad habits directly related to the disease on many fronts unlike in the developed world. Smoking is just one area where their interests find a meeting point but in many other areas their priorities will diverge instead of converging. Because treatment of cancer is highly costly -so costly that even in rich countries not everyone can afford it - its patients in the poor countries are more vulnerable. Some do not stand any chance of survival simply because there is no facility for its early diagnosis or treatment at the local level. It is therefore wise to go for healthy practices in order to avoid the disease.
In developed countries quite a large number of people have opted to be vegetarian. The aim is to avoid processed food and go back to natural type of food as much as possible. Not a bad ploy indeed to see off the disease from the vicinity of family and friends. It is exactly at this point, the task proves particularly daunting for poorer countries. They have more mouths to feed than their land can afford. Naturally, they have to go for hybrid and genetically modified crops and fruits in some cases. How such foods affect human development over a long period, say a century, is yet to be known. But the unstoppable avalanche of the disease even among village people in Bangladesh points to something more ominous than it was anytime before.
On the positive side, expert opinions confirm that only 10 per cent of cancer is due to inherited genes. So people have a major role in acquiring or avoiding the disease. Those conscious of the bad practices that raise the chance of falling victim to the disease are likely to be successful in 90 per cent cases. Further research might arm people with more effective arsenal to fight cancer. Let the mankind take up the challenge to be more than equal to the threat of a cancer epidemic.
nilratan [email protected]
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