Jammu, Feb 3: Despite awareness schemes and campaigns launched by the state government to make people aware about cancer, the number of patients suffering from different types of this killer disease has been on rise in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in Jammu province.
 As per the figures available, the number of patients suffering from different types of cancer— which used to be in between 400 to 500 per year in 90s—is now touching nearly 2000 per year in Jammu region. According to the data, there were 1385 cancer patients in the year 2008, 1450 in 2009, 1500 in 2010 and 1600 in 2011. In the year 2012, this number has swelled to 1965.
 Official sources said that there was a possibility that due to increased awareness among people and better accessibility in terms of road connectivity and other means, more and more patients are reporting to the hospitals. “There is a possibility that the number of cancer patients during 90s could be more but they did not report to the hospitals for one reason or the other,” they said, admitting that the number of such patients has no doubt been on rise for the past few years.
 Head of the Oncology Department at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H), Dr Ashutosh Gupta said: “Despite the rise in the number of cancer cases, the mortality rate is low in comparison to last few years. Moreover, now we have a better treatment available for cancer.”
 He said earlier there used to be ‘Chemotherapy’ to treat cancer patients which had side effects but now there is a better alternative in the form of ‘Targeted Therapy’.
 With ‘Targeted Therapy’ the cancerous tissues of the affected part of the body can be destroyed to stop them from spreading into other parts of the body.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Feb 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 4 Feb 2013 00:00:00 IST