The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Cancer due to tobacco on the rise

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Saturday, May 31, 2008
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Cancer due to tobacco on the rise

Divya Gandhi

Bangalore: Lung cancer is instantly recognised as a fatal consequence of tobacco abuse. But in India, the cases of lung cancer are exceeded by two other forms of tobacco-related cancers — head and neck cancer — a result of the growing trend in consuming “smokeless tobacco” such as gutka.

Cancers of the lip, tongue, mouth and throat make up between 60 to 65 per cent of all tobacco-related cancers at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (KMIO). And this is a figure that has been growing over the last decade, says K.C Lakshmaiah, Professor and Head of the Department of Medical Oncology, KMIO. “World No Tobacco Day” today is an opportunity to consider these often overlooked dangers of tobacco abuse.

“We have seen a five to 10 per cent increase in head and neck cancers in 10 years, and this trend reflects the national situation,” he says. “India has the largest number of cases of oral and throat cancers in the world, which are associated with chewing tobacco and exacerbated by smoking.”

Tobacco-related head and neck cancers are the most common form of cancer in men, and among women it is the third most common form of cancer, after breast and cervical cancer, Prof. Lakshmaiah says. “While there have been attempts to deter cigarette smoking either through taxation or banning it in public spaces, no such attention has been paid to other tobacco products such as gutka,” he says.

At KMIO, all tobacco-related cancer cases (including cancers of the head, neck, lungs, oesophagus and bladder) have been rising steadily over the last seven years. Head and neck cancers form for the largest chunk of this.

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