Nagaland records highest Nasopharynx cancer cases

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Nov. 12 (EMN): Nagaland has reported the highest incidence of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC), commonly known as Nasopharynx cancer, in both male and female in India.

Internationally, Nagaland is reported to be ranked third for male, and second for female.

According to Dr. V Khamo of Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK), more than 600 new cancer cases are registered every year and the average risk, that a person will possibly develop nasopharyngeal cancer in his/her lifetime, is 1 in 61 males; and 1 in 146 females.

This was informed during the celebration of ‘Christ with Love, Joy and Hope’ programme organised by the Cancer Survivor Fellowship in Kohima, in association with Population Based Cancer Registry, NHAK held at DBT conference hall at NHAK in Kohima on Tuesday.

Khamo stated that the top leading “sites of cancer” in male (as per survey in 2012-2014) are nasopharynx, stomach, esophagus, lung, larynx, hypopharynx, mouth, tonsil, liver and colon. The top leading “cancer sites” in female are cervix, uteri, breast, stomach, nasopharynx, thyroid, skin, lungs, esophagus, rectum and ovary, she said.

Khamo also informed about the various cancer care facilities available at NHAK, which includes endoscopy, mammography, surgery, histopathology, CT scan, MRI, USG, oncology OPD, oncology ward, day care facility (chemotherapy), palliative care, NCD clinic, tobacco cessation clinic and ICU. Head and neck oncologist, medical oncologist, radiation oncologist and medical physicist are also available at NHAK, she added.

It was informed that 78.7% of cancer patients in Nagaland are taking treatment outside of the Northeast.

She further highlighted about the cancer burdens in Nagaland where most patients are diagnosed at stage III and IV, leading to low survival rate. She said that this is due to lack of awareness, and lack of early diagnostic tools. Patients in remote villages have difficulty in accessing basic health care facility due to lack of transportation, poor communication networks, language barriers and financial constraints, she added.

“Provide early detection facilities in all the district hospitals, counselling facilities, create poor-patient cancer funds, rehabilitation of cancer patients, provide common cancer drugs at subsidised rates, make available the various specialists in oncology at a centralised place and set up radiotherapy facility,” she suggested.

Miss Phek 2019, Shefüvi Pfithu shared her life story during the programme. “I have come so far in life from a young girl to being diagnosed with cancer and standing here to share my life journey,” she said.

She narrated that she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2017 when she was in class X. “I lost my dad in 2013 when I was in class VI,” she continued. “Having lost my dad was a very harsh reality for me.”

She said people ‘criticised’ her when she was diagnosed with cancer, saying that she was ‘cursed’. “But that didn’t stop me. The more criticism I got, the more I realised I wanted to stay strong,” she stated.

Banuo Z Jamir, former chief secretary and a cancer survivor, asserted that cancer survivors include not only the cancer patients but also the loved ones and caretakers. “Cancer is just another disease and not a curse, and one should not be ashamed of talking about it,” she added.