BANGALORE: The Government-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) to promote prevention and early detection of cancer through the BMP hospitals.

Under this project, doctors from the Community Oncology Department of the Kidwai Hospital will prepare the medical and paramedical staff at various BMP hospitals to identify and educate patients who may be at risk of developing different types of cancer mainly cancer of the cervix, breast and oral cancer. They will be trained in conducting tests to detect various cancers, including PAP smear, breast examination, examination of the mouth region to check for oral cancer and so on.

The MoU was signed in May and the project will be started by the end of July, the Director of Kidwai Hospital, P.P. Bapsy, said. There are 29 BMP hospitals in the city. Of these, 23 are maternity homes while six are referral centres.

"Cancer of the cervix and oral cancer are among the most common cancers found among the population, especially among women here. Since BMP runs a few maternity hospitals in the city, we thought early detection programmes can be implemented through these hospitals to target women in the age group of 30 to 45 who are at highest risk of developing these cancers," she said.

Dr. Bapsy said gynaecologists, apart from the other medical staff at these hospitals, will be an important part of the programme as they can play a vital role in the prevention and detection of cancer in women.

As oral cancer is caused mostly because of tobacco use, the training will emphasise on highlighting the dangers of tobacco use and how to educate people on this issue.

Teaching material on anti-tobacco use in English and Kannada have been developed for the purpose.

"We did a study in Kanakapura to see how the programme will work. Based on that we decided to initiate the project in all BMP hospitals. This is part of the Karnataka Cancer Control Programme initiated by the Government some time ago," Dr. Bapsy said.

There were plans to extend this programme to Mandya, Gulbarga and Mysore.

"We want to train medical and paramedical staff in the district and taluk-level hospitals, including district health officers in cancer prevention and detection," she said.

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