Community Awareness - A Key to the Early Detection of Head and Neck Cancer

Main Article Content

Ajay Manickam
Jayanta Saha
Debangshu Ghosh
Shaswati Sengupta
Debabrata Biswas
Sumit Kumar Basu
Satish Kumar
Souradeep Ray

Abstract

INTRODUCTION


Mortality and morbidity associated with head and neck cancers have decreased to a great extent in many developed countries of the world due to early diagnosis and treatment with advances in surgical techniques and better availability of radiotherapist and oncologists. But the situation in developing countries like India is quite different.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES


This study was conducted amongst the patients attending the Otolaryngology department of a teaching hospital in Kolkata to find the incidence of various types and sites of head and neck cancer, to assess time delay from the date of onset of symptom to the final disease confirmation in relation to patients’ demographic profile, to assess time delay in histopathological diagnosis after reaching a tertiary care setup and also to correlate tobacco consumption and alcohol intake as risk factors for head and neck cancer and to note the reasons for late presentation, as described by the patient.


MATERIALS AND METHODS


The descriptive study was conducted at a tertiary level teaching hospital, in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology for a period from August 2013 to August 2015 with a study population of 133. 


OBSERVATIONS 


An average time lag from the onset of symptom to final diagnosis as malignancy was found to be 6 months to one year in nearly 72% of cases. Most of the patients were uneducated males of more than 50 years of age, hailing from rural areas. Cancer larynx was found to be the commonest of all head and neck cancers (31.6%). More than 65% of the patients were addicted to tobacco chewing or smoking or consumption of alcohol. 


DISCUSSION 


Poverty, lack of education, poor communication, lack of health care infrastructure in rural areas, community awareness about various risk factors, lack of effective health policy to achieve early diagnosis of head neck cancer were common factors related to delay in diagnosis. 


CONCLUSION 


Tobacco use and alcohol intake are the modifiable risk factors of head and neck cancer. Educating the field workers about the danger signs of head and neck cancer may promote early referral of the suspected cases to tertiary health care setup for early detection of cancer. 

Article Details

How to Cite
1.
Manickam A, Saha J, Ghosh D, Sengupta S, Biswas D, Basu SK, Kumar S, Ray S. Community Awareness - A Key to the Early Detection of Head and Neck Cancer. BJOHNS [Internet]. 2016Apr.1 [cited 2024Nov.5];24(1):7-14. Available from: https://bjohns.in/journal3/index.php/bjohns/article/view/66
Section
Main article
Author Biographies

Ajay Manickam, RG KAR MEDICAL COLLEGE

JUNIOR RESIDENT, ENT

Jayanta Saha, RG Kar medical college

ENT

Debangshu Ghosh, Rg kar medical college

ENT

Shaswati Sengupta, Rg kar medical college

ENT

Debabrata Biswas

ENT

Sumit Kumar Basu, Rg kar medical college

ENT

Satish Kumar, Tn mgr medical university

Community medicine

Souradeep Ray, Rg kar medical college

ENT

References

http://globocan.iarc.fr/Pages/fact_sheets_population.aspx. Last accessed on 19/02/2016

Nelson R. Cancer Incidence Increasing, Mortality High. Medscape – India May 06, 2014. www.medscape.com/viewartcle/824697

Sobin LH, Wittekind CH. TNM Classification of malignant tumours, UICC, 6th edn. New York; Wiley-Liss, 2002. A summary and cornerstone for accurate staging.

Greene F, Page DL, Flemming ID, Fritz AG, Balch CM, Haller DG(eds). The AJCC cancer staging manual, 6th edn. New York; Springer, 2002. A summary and cornerstone for accurate staging.

http;//publications.iarc.fr/ International agency for research on cancer

Alvarez-Uria G, Middle M, Naik PK. Patients seeking medical advice in a Rural Hospital of India. J Public Health Res. 2012;14:79-82. Doi.10.4081/jphr.2012.e14. ecollection 2012.

http;//www.who.int/topics/cancer/en

www.tradingeconomics.com/india/rural-population-percent-of-total-population-wb-data.html. Last accessed on 19/02/2016

globocan.iarc.fr/ Pages/fact_sheets_cancers.aspx – international agency for research on cancer. GLOBOCAN 2012; estimated cancer incidence, Mortality and prevalence worldwide in 2012. Last accessed on 19/02/2016

Trivedi NP, Kekatpure VD, Trivedi NN, Kuriakose MA. Head and Neck cancer in India. Need to formulate uniform national treatment guideline? Indian Journal of Cancer 2012; 49:6-10. doi: 10.4103/0019-509X.98907

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>