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Cancer no longer means a certain death warrant to the patient, as it once was, and the disease can be cured and quality life can be led afterwards by the afflicted person, according to Dr V. Santha, Chairman of the Cancer Institute (Adyar), Chennai.
She was delivering the memorial lecture here on Saturday evening after receiving the Dr Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award for 2010. Nayudamma, who died in the Kanishka air crash in 1985 in Canada, was born in a village near Tenali. He was the founder-director of the Leather Research Institute in Chennai.
The award was presented by Mr Justice N.V Ramana, a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Earlier, Mr P. Vishnumurthy, Managing Trustee, read out the citation.
Dr Santha said the Adyar Institute, set up in 1954, had done yeoman service over the past five decades and it had grown into one of the premier institutes in the country. “At that time, cancer was a dreaded disease. Now it can be cured and it can be prevented. Early detection is the key. Still, fear associated with the disease lingers in the public mind. The public has to be educated on various aspects of the disease and the fear factor has to be dispelled,” she said.
She said tobacco-related cancers, occupational cancers and pre-cancerous conditions could be treated. Mass population screening programmes could be taken up. She said a comprehensive cancer cure was the emerging trend, and it involved total care from the time of diagnosis, through treatment, follow-up, rehabilitation and many times palliative care. “Today's focus is care beyond cure and on to healing,” she said.
Anti-tobacco laws
She said the Government should show the political will to implement the anti-tobacco laws in earnest. “It is not enough to make the laws. They should be implemented. The tobacco lobby is very strong. But the Government should remain firm,” she said. She said passive smoking was as dangerous. While the habit was coming down in the advanced countries of the west, it is growing in India and Asian countries, she added.
She was the first woman recipient of the Nayudamma award.
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