If we can be a leader in vaccine manufacturing and gift it to the world in times of need, we can definitely beat breast cancer, believes Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology. Speaking at THE WEEK’s second edition of ‘Expanding Breast Cancer Care for Indian Women’ summit on July 27, he underlined how breast cancer was increasingly affecting younger women in the country.
“There’s a huge social and civilisational context to the prevalence of the disease in the country. During the time of Independence and the post-Independence era, one would talk about diseases like cholera because we were struggling with infectious diseases and like most other Indians, women would not live long enough to develop breast cancer. They would often succumb to antenatal events and a safe delivery was a great blessing. After the 1980s, we got out of that phase of communicable diseases, and also antenatal and infant mortality cases and graduated into these diseases, which were also known as ‘diseases of the civilised’.”
He says cases of diabetes and cancer started rising with the rising average age. According to the minister, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus on health, welfare and youth has been a gamechanger in the recent few years especially in the health sector. “When we talk about breast cancer, we are simultaneously talking about the wellbeing of a woman. Apart from the ongoing research, we have to have a wider integration of approach, which Covid taught us well – when you’re faced with the threat of death you learn what you didn’t want to learn. Earlier viewed as ‘oriental practices’ with a certain degree of contempt, Indian medical knowledge was the most sought after during the pandemic.”
He says that there should be an integration of all the systems of medicine available ranging from Indian to Chinese and also yoga. The pandemic, according to Singh, also introduced India to preventive healthcare –from treatments to the luxury of checkups. “In a country where you have to skip a meal, to have a drug, this is a big achievement. Now that the socio-economic levels have also risen, we look forward to playing a global role in more ways than one.”
Considering that India is a young country with a majority population under the age of 40, Singh says that preventive care is utmost necessary to avoid losing young resources to these diseases. He pressed for the need of a joint, integrated and a holistic approach for the society, by the families, and in case of breast cancer, also supportive attitude from the spouses, and also the other members of the family.
The breast cancer awareness summit sponsored by LIC and Fortis had THE WEEK resident editor R. Prasannan deliver the welcome address, followed by Rajeev Sadanandan, former health secretary, Government of Kerala and Vishal Chauhan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. While both Sadanandan and Chauhan agreed that after the breast cancer screening is done, it doesn’t reach a conclusion, Chauhan urged the tertiary care hospitals to train doctors and get involved in the screening process so that any cases that are picked up, can be attended to.
The sessions at the summit included discussions on ‘The ABC of Breast Cancer’, ‘Breast Cancer Prevention’, ‘Breast Cancer Care Perspectives’, ‘Molecular & Precision Oncology is Centre Stage in Breast Cancer’ and so on with several senior doctors and researchers as panelists. On the process of screening, professor Chintamani, in-charge, Department of Breast & Endocrine, Former Head, Department of Surgery, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi; President & Governor, American College of Surgeons, India Chapter, says that there is a tendency to have a screening at the age of 40-45 but in India, we are seeing breast cancer cases in younger women, and it is harder to detect cancers in younger women due to dense breasts and radiation exposure.
“Awareness has increased and there are ongoing studies to test better ways of screening. Earlier we would see 30% early breast cancer cases, now we are seeing 70% because of awareness.”
