Cancer Screening

Activities / Cancer Screening

Checking for cancer in people who have no symptoms is called screening. Screening helps detect cancer early and thus reduce the chance of dying from that cancer. Thankfully advances in medical research have devised newer and more effective treatment strategies, which ensure good quality of life to the survivor. THE KEY IS, EARLY DETECTION.

ICS undertakes screening for the three most commonly occurring cancers: Oral, Breast and Cervical cancers.

Why do we screen only for Oral, Breast and Cervical cancers?

Early screening for these three cancers can be conducted in a camp setting, since ICS goes to those populations who have low access to hospital care. It is also important to know that these three cancers exhibit early warning signs, which if detected in time can be treated and prevented from progressing to an advanced stage.

Over 32% of rural population are tobacco users, which includes both the smoke-less variety such as zarda, gutka, etc, as well as the smoking variety such as cigarettes, beedis, e-cigarettes.

Unfortunately, most of them have poor awareness about preventive steps and recognition of early stages of oral cancer.

Early detection gives us a chance to reduce mortality rates; for which screening helps in identifying lesions in the mouth, in a cost-effective manner. Oral (mouth) screening is conducted for both men and women above 18 years of age.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer* among women and incidences are rising rapidly in India and increasingly, among the young and middle-aged women. This statistical trend has been noticed more in urban women in recent times.

The 2nd* most common cancer among womenin India, is the occurrence of Cervical cancer. Early lesions/infections can be detected by a PAP test or HPV test. This can be treated by a simple protocol, which will ensure that it does not develop into a case of cancer. In fact, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infections are not uncommon among women, but usually the natural immunity of the body can get rid of it. Cervical cancer is the only cancer which can be prevented by the HPV vaccine, which is administered to girls between the ages of 9 and 14 years.

Breast and cervical screening are conducted for women who are between the ages of 30 and 65.

ICS goes to the underprivileged communities, both rural and urban to conduct screening.

ü Screening is taken to their doorstep

ü Screening is free of cost to the beneficiary

*https://cancerindia.org.in/statistics/#1715659654193-bc9370db-e9d5

ICS executes screening activities through two models

The process:

Population Based Cancer screening

Increasing the reach of ICS across Karnataka, covering a village at a time and then covering the Taluka.
Training of health care workers/Interns for house-to-house survey to identify individuals at high risk for Oral, Breast and Cervical cancers.
Screening to identify potentially malignant lesions and cancer.
Tobacco Cessation Counselling for individuals who have the Tobacco habit, with periodic follow up counselling.
Early detection and treatment for all 3 cancers.

Opportunistic Cancer Screening

Conduct an awareness session in the camp site.
Oral, Breast and Cervical cancer screening to identify potentially malignant lesions and cancer.
Tobacco Cessation Counselling for individuals who have the habit, with periodic follow up counselling. Several tobacco users come forward, but not all are amenable to counselling.