Cancer, the deadliest of all diseases, which can hit mankind, is the most frightening disease anyone can be diagnosed with. The diagnosis of cancer is often seen as a death sentence to the patient, it’s like a ticking bomb. For a patient it is a farrago of helplessness, hopelessness, misery and an impending doom. Cancer doesn’t have a caste, creed, color or religion, it strikes anyone, of any age , of any sex , of any race , of any religion or region. Cancer rules the mafia of diseases and its early arrest is priceless and life saving. Cancer is a group of rebellious, abnormal cells who declare war on entire body, they grow without limits, without any boundaries, kill the defensive and policemen cells of body, breach their walls , spread like mad and sick psychotic killers, killing and destroying anything that tries to stop them, growing mightier, uglier and foolishly weakening, sickening and destroying the body they live in.
The deadliest thing about the disease is that it spreads to distant areas from its origin, hits any organ in a way that it’s literally impossible to take down every wicked armyman of this battalion of enemy cells and any such single army man left alive gives rise to entirely new battalions of cells making cancer incurable in most late cases. The worst thing about this killer disease is that in most cases patients don’t develop any symptoms till the cancerous tumor has grown to a significant size and the chances of cure rapidly go down as the size of tumor goes up.
Stomach cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths and every fourth cancer patient in the world has stomach cancer. It is as worrying and disheartening to know that it’s the fourth commonest cancer but second leading cancer causing death, which raises our eyebrows in mixed emotion of fear filled surprise. In India incidence of this disease is higher in northeastern and southern states with highest incidence in males of Chennai. J&K also is affected significantly by this deadly disease. The common probable risk factor between southern states and Kashmir is heavy use of spices in staple food.
The fall of stomach cancer incidence in western countries and surge in the Asian countries like Japan, China etc and decline of the incidence in the offspring of these Asian people born and brought up in western countries points towards the environmental role in stomach cancer. Stomach cancer has a lot to do about your surroundings, about what you eat , how you eat, and what chemicals you are exposed to through your food. All these things interact with your genes and it takes years and decades to incubate cancer from the persistence of these risk factors which grind together and solidify into the cancer. The accused and convicts in the parade of suspects were found to be salty , smoked foods and in the same parade fresh fruits and vegetables and Vitamin C were identified to be part of a police team who have taken oath to prevent people from stomach cancer.
Asia being a hub of infectious diseases doesn’t surprise us about Helicobacter Pylori infection being rampant in this region and what is worrying is that it is a proven risk factor for stomach cancer. Some inherited conditions which run in families, affect intestines and , and in the medical world they are known as polyposis syndromes, and some of them like Gardeners syndrome are associated with a 100% risk to get a cancer of the large intestine and very high risk to get a stomach cancer. As rightly quoted by public speakers and authors of books that prevention is better than cure, yes it is, but the question is whom to prevent and how to prevent.
Unsurprisingly the stomach cancer survival rates in Japan are double that of America. Japan also tops the list of countries in detecting stomach cancer at the earliest and curable stage by making endoscopies ( camera visualisation of stomach) mandatory in suspected cases who present with any stomach symptoms. Other governments like ours argue that spending too much money on screening for stomach cancer like routine endoscopies is costly keeping in view the incidence of disease. So it leaves the patient of early stomach cancer on mercy of God, who goes unnoticed by doctors based on his milder symptoms and later karma hits the national health expenses hard for the treatment of such a patient who later presents with full blown cancer.
Being chained and handcuffed by political constraints, legislative deficiencies, constipated research funding, increasing unmanageable population of teeming millions, crippled healthcare system, unacceptable doctor patient ratios, a common man finds himself/herself sinking in this whirlpool of despair, when it comes to preventive measures about stomach cancer.
On an individual level, people should avoid eating foods which are proven risk factors for stomach cancer, like smoked foods, or foods containing high salt content. Almost most cancers besides lung cancer can be linked to smoking, so every puff you inhale, equally puts you at risk for stomach cancer. Rather than annoying your doctor, by challenging his ten year hard earned medical knowledge with your ten minutes of Google knowledge about your symptoms, it is better to educate your doctor about your symptoms precisely and let him do the interpretation part. The relatives of stomach cancer patients should be equally worried about themselves as they are, about their relatives as the sinister genes of familial cancer may be engaged in the silence before a storm.
If two or more of your relatives have stomach cancer, or known cancer syndrome, you should always present yourself for screening voluntarily, because “sorry” is not an apology for a missed cancer. As they say, nip the evil in the bud, never ignore your slightest symptoms , as they may be the harbinger of a deadliest storm. Consult your doctor for every symptom you have, be it nausea , vomiting , acidity or mild discomfort in your upper belly. Remember that effortless weight loss, which drives many women crazy may be due to advanced stomach cancer. The tip would be to remember that weight loss comes at a price, be it grinding yourself in the gym or ignoring the cancer.
All these precautions and preventions can save lots of lives , nevertheless the inadequate health care system we are living in.
On political and administrative level , a lot can be done to conquer and control this plague of stomach cancer like improving healthcare in general, which should be aimed at decentralisation, opening medical colleges and hospitals at peripheries rather than overloading the urban hospitals as most cases of advanced stomach cancer come from peripheries with poor access to health care but it should be remembered that manpower without machines and infrastructure is useless.
Secondly, providing adequate facilities to routinely screen patients for stomach cancer with proper investigations in pockets of high incidence seems pragmatic. More funding on research and improving GDP spent on healthcare by the government is priceless in overall health improvement in general and stomach cancer in particular which can make treatment of cancer affordable and timely.
Focussing more on preventative measures and detection of early cancer will surely save lots of lives and lots of money. Volunteers, NGOs and governmental organisations should join hands for awareness about the risk factors of stomach cancer especially in high intensity pockets and help build screening centres.
The people who are living with diagnosed stomach cancer , need to understand that they are braver than soldiers because soldiers are fighting a war without and they are fighting a war within. People who are diagnosed with stomach cancer should know the fact that cancer is curable especially in early stages, and different people behave differently to treatment, and in no way should they give up, because perseverance is the key to survival and success.
To sum up stomach cancer, is a psychopath killer, which has no respect for principles of cellular society, depending on your susceptibilities like broken genomic windows or environmental risks like broken doors, stormy winds , it can break inside your house , and start an assault, it might be attracted to you by smell of smoked or salted food, or might come to know about you from your close relatives who have been already assaulted by it, or it might have been invited by your secret enemy, Helicobacter Pylori dwelling inside your house for years. Once it’s inside, endoscopic policemen can arrest it if you call them very early or else later the entire room needs to removed to cure the house.
So to save yourself from this psychopath, the best you can do is – avoid company of smoked foods, salt and foods with nitrates, be friends with fruits, vegetables and nice guys like vitamin C, break up with smoking, divorce Helicobacter Pylori, if already married and hire an imaginary personal secretary who always gets you an appointment with doctor at slightest problems in your stomach .