Cancer sa matatanda, kayang iwasan at pigilan
ANG ilang cancers ay nakukuha dahil sa dugo o namana ngunit karamihan sa mga uri ng cancer, lalo na sa matatanda, ay nakukuha o nade-develop at kaya itong pigilan o iwasan, ayon sa eksperto.
Sinabi ni Dennis Sacdalan, head ng Cancer Center of Manila Medical Center, sa Philippine News Agency (PNA) sa isang panayam na ang ilang cancer ng matatanda, na nakuha dahil sa pagkakalantad sa kapaligiran, ay maaaring maiwasan sa wastong mga regulasyon.
“According to the Department of Health (DoH), the death toll from cancer for both adults and children is about 66,000 Filipinos per year. Seven adult Filipinos die of cancer every hour. There are 110,000 new cases diagnosed yearly,” aniya.
Ipinaliwanag ni Dennis na ang paglikha ng mas mahuhusay na mga programa para iwasan ang cancer ay makatutulong para pababain ang bilang ng mga bagong kaso ng cancer at kaso ng pagkamatay dahil sa naturang sakit.
“For example, tobacco control for lung cancer, and promotion of vaccination for Hepatitis B and HPV (human papillomavirus). Cervical cancer and liver cancer are two cancers that are mainly associated with viral infections. If you do effective vaccination programs, you can dramatically decrease the number of patients with cervical cancer,” sabi pa ni Dennis.
Aniya pa, mayroon ding mga secondary prevention, na maaaring isagawa “to keep cancer from being the third leading cause of death in adults and the fourth leading cause of death in children.”
Puwedeng sumailalim sa mga screening gaya ng colonoscopy para sa colon cancer, pap smear para sa cervical cancer, at mammography para sa breast cancer, ayon pa rin kay Dennis.
“If you could create programs that will ensure the target population, meaning those who are in their 40’s and 50’s, they could receive these services and you’ll be able to see a drop in cancer deaths in the future,” aniya. Binigyang-diin din ni Dennis ang importansiya ng pagkakaroon ng malusog na pamumuhay, kapag nakararanas na ang matatanda ng sintomas ng naturang sakit.
“We need to promote better nutrition and ensure that the agriculture sector could provide healthy foods for the general population, promote physical activity, because it is greatly associated with the drop of cancer in mortality,” dagdag pa ni niya.
Kung maaaring iwasan ang pagkakaroon ng cancer ng matatanda, sinabi ni Dennis sa PNA na hindi ito sigurado para sa mga batang may cancer.
“I think genetics plays a great role here, sometimes there are hereditary conditions. If not, in some kids, there could be mutations in the genes, which have developed. I cannot say that it is due to environmental exposures because they’re still young and they’ve lived for just a few years, and this would be a good point for research,” sabi pa ni Dennis.