ON February 4, World Cancer Day was commemorated worldwide. This anniversary was observed under the auspices of the Union for International Cancer Control. The objective of World Cancer Day is to save millions from preventable deaths by raising awareness and education, about cancer and pressing governments and individuals across the world to take action against the disease. In Guyana, the government is aware of its responsibilities towards cancer sufferers. The Guyana Cancer Foundation led by Ms Bibi Hassan has been doing much educational work about the disease, and acting as a pressure group and dovetailing its efforts with the Ministry of Public Health. The Guyana Cancer Foundation is partnered by the Central Islamic Organisation of Guyana (CIOG), the Guyana Medical Relief and the Humanitarian Assistance Programme of the United States Embassy.

Cancer was a disease more feared than even leprosy since it was long felt, with good reason, that if one was infected with it, then it was terminal. Cancer patients and their families were inevitably sunk in resigned hopelessness.

Modern Science has discovered the basic cause of the disease which is an uncontrolled cell proliferation. The normal cells are the building blocks of the body and its organs and they help the body to grow, heal and repair itself and fight off diseases. When the normal working of the cell goes wrong the resultant abnormal cell keeps multiplying. These abnormal cells (the cancer cells) come together and form a lump or tumour and that is the beginning of cancer. Then the tumour spreads attacking the healthy parts of the body.

Cancer treatment is to try to stop the proliferation of these abnormal cells and eliminate them. All treatments used so far have after effects and no treatment is invariably successful. The treatments used are surgery where the cancer is removed by an operation; radiotherapy where high energy x-rays are used to destroy the cancer cells; chemotherapy where anti-cancer drugs are used to destroy the cancer cells; hormonal therapies where the hormones in the body are changed so as to slow down or stop the cancer from growing; and biological therapies which interferes with the way cancer cells grow. The most common treatments used in Guyana are surgery when the disease is in its early stages and before it would have spread to other parts of the body; radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Patients have to go abroad to receive more advanced radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments.

There are many types of cancer and each type has to be treated in its own appropriate way. In Guyana, the eight most known and prevalent cancers are Breast; Cervix uteri and ovary and corpus uteri; Prostate; Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; Lung; Stomach; Pancreas and Liver. Breast, Cervix and Prostate account for more than half of the cancer sufferers in Guyana and much progress has been made in treating Breast and Cervix. Women’s organisations have proved themselves an effective pressure group, in pressing for the extension and improvement in the quality of care for these cancers. Today, the hopelessness of cancer patients and their families has diminished and there is the general understanding that though treatment for cancers could be lengthy, the disease could be cured.

In most cases, sufferers tend to recognise that they are infected with the disease only after some years, and this makes treatment more difficult since if cancer is treated in its early stages, the chances of curing it are higher. It is, therefore, useful to be aware of the signs and symptoms of cancer. Such would include unusual lumps or swellings in parts of the body; coughing, breathlessness or difficulty in swallowing; changes in bowel habit; unexpected bleeding; unusual breast changes among women; complications when urinating; fatigue; appetite loss; unexplained weight loss.

There are a few other observations we will make which may be of interest or useful to readers. Smoking and the use of tobacco products is one of the major causes of cancer. Smoking, even secondary smoking when one inhales the tobacco smoke exhaled by someone else, takes into the body many dangerous poisons. Such toxicity intake into the body is one of the major causes of cancer, and in the case of tobacco smoke, six million people die from it worldwide each year.

Another cause of cancer is traced to what one eats. A diet which consists of much red meat or meat as a whole, assists in the growth of cancers and many reputable studies have affirmed this conclusion. On the other hand, a diet which is largely vegetarian never results in cancer infection. In other words, animal-based protein is cancer inducing while vegetable protein is not. Menus and lists of cancer and non-cancer inducing foods are found on many sites on the Internet.

It was often believed that cancer was genetic or hereditary but most of the reputable research has rejected this theory. One of the main reasons why a number of cancer sufferers may be found in a particular family is, simply that family lived in the same lifestyle, for example, eating the same food which may be cancer-inducing.

In Guyana, we have a fairly good basic infrastructure for cancer treatment with the Cancer Institute at the Georgetown Public Hospital and in the educational and outreach work of the Guyana Cancer Foundation, but they need much upgrading to be able to reach minimum acceptable international standards.