YAISHWARYAJ: PRESS RELEASE: CANCER CASES ON THE RISE IN CITY

Dr. Asghar H. Asghar Email: quaidian@yahoo.com

Coverage of City Tumor Board on News Papers

The News

CTB The News

Monday, May 16, 2011

‘Cancer cases on the rise in city’

M. Waqar Bhatti

Karachi
Due to excessive use of tobacco, chewing beetle nuts and leaves, smoke and environmental pollution, the number of cancer cases is on the rise in Karachi.

Consultant Clinical Oncologist Karachi Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine (KIRAN) Hospital and Aga Khan University Hospital (AKU) Dr. Asghar H. Asghar said this while talking to The News after a meeting of City Tumour Board (CTB) held at a local hotel on Sunday.
He said that although the cancer cases in Karachi were on the rise but it has been observed that awareness was also increasing among the people through media campaigns to get treatment and avoid the things that cause cancers.

According to Dr Asghar, rectal cancer is misunderstood and treated as piles due to similar symptoms like bleeding in stool. “People waste time in getting treated by Hakeems and quacks who mistook cancer as piles and the cancer enters in danger stage.”

Breast cancer has become very common in women and girls as they feel shy to inform about it to others. Every woman must get screened after 40 years of age regularly and girls should also consult doctors if they see changes in their breast, he recommended.

Consultant Oncologist, Baqai Medical University, Prof. Manzoor Zaidi chaired the session at the annual meeting wherein total 11 cases were discussed in a limited time of two hours.
Doctors shared their ideas and gave expert opinion regarding management of these cases.
CTB was started in March 2010 with the aim to treat each and every patient of oncology with multidisciplinary approach as the treatment of cancer is not a single person’s job since it requires a full team work.
Leading surgeons, oncologists, radiologists and pathologists of the city used to gather on Sunday (fortnightly) at Zainab Punjawani Hospital, Karachi, to discuss such cases. This effort not only avoids the unnecessary treatment but also reduces the cost of cancer care, he informed.
The board is a forum where all cancer patients are discussed to make their final treatment plan.
The board comprises oncologists, surgeons, pathologists, radiologists and psychiatrists. There was a dire need of tumour board in Karachi where all team members could gather for the purpose.
Many tumour boards are being run in different hospitals but this sort of forum is limited to Zainab Punjawani Hospital only. Seniors in the field of oncology and surgery made a plan to gather all the team members on Sunday because most are free on Sundays from their routine hospital work.
This idea really worked and the first meeting of this board was held on March 28, 2010 at Karachi-X-Ray. This board was named as “City Tumour Board” as it was for the whole of Karachi and not related to any single hospital or institution.

Consultants from different hospital participated in the meeting. Other eminent participants from various hospitals, included: Dr. Nadeem Abbasi, Dr. Abid Jamal, Dr. Najeeb Naimat Ullah, Dr. Adnan Zaidi, Dr. Azmina Vali Mohammad, Dr. Nehal Massod, Dr. Mubashir Ikram, Dr. Tariq Rafi, Dr. Iqbal Hussain, Dr. Mehmood Yousuf, Dr. Tufail, Dr. Salman, Dr. Atiq, Dr. Azhar Rasheed, Dr. Nasir, Dr. Amir Maqbool, Dr. Ahmed Mateen, Dr. Ahmed Fawad, Dr. Saulat Fatimi, Dr. Javid Malik and Dr. Shakeel Aman Ullah.

Jang

Tumor Board meeting (3)