Various state-run, private hospitals observe International Brain Tumour Awareness Week

Kolkata: Various state-run hospitals and some private health establishments are observing International Brain Tumour Awareness Week from October 20-27 through various programmes.

One of the main objectives of the move is to spread awareness among people about the disease and what needs to be done to check it. The incidence rate of brain tumours in India is rising. Around three percent of 78,4821 cancer deaths in India is caused due to brain tumours in 2018.

According to a senior Radio Oncology Consultant in the city, different kinds of tumors are detected in patients at different age groups. While most cases have unknown causes, some are linked to genetic diseases such as Neurofibromatosis and exposure to radiations.

A new emerging threat is the exposure to. While smart phones are everyone's best friend, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has observed that radiofrequency waves from mobile phones are the new emerging threat to the disease.

The radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, linked to mobile phones, may be carcinogenic and there is always a high risk in using them.

Dr Jyotirup Goswami, Consultant, Radiation Oncology said: "Worldwide, one percent of approximately 3 lakh cancer cases are found to have brain tumours but Indian data suggests that as much as 10 percent of new patients could be suffering brain tumors."

As per Globocan 2018 report issued by the International Association of Cancer Registries (IARC) associated with WHO, as many as 28,142 new brain tumour cases are reported in India annually, while there are as many as 24,003 death.

According to a report done by the government hospitals in Bengal, around 13.6 percent cancer cases are found to be suffering from brain tumour, Dr Goswami said.

A recent study in Eastern India was done by Clinical cancer investigation journal by involving 130 cases with brain tumour found male preponderance. Most common tumour type in this study was neuroepithelial tumor (70 percent). Among the neuroepithelial tumors, most frequent subtype was astrocytic tumor (41 percent). The second most frequent brain tumor was meningioma (20 cases, 15.3 percent).

While symptoms of brain tumours are not always specific but persistent symptoms like unexplained headaches, difficulty in speech, vision, hearing, unexplained nausea-vomiting, changes in mood or ability to concentrate, memory loss and numbness in the legs or arms are all causes for concern.

If anybody complaints about any of the symptoms the patient should consult a neurologist immediately and if necessary the patient will be asked to get brain imaging done. If the patient is diagnosed with brain tumors, a surgery may be required followed by radiotherapy & chemotherapy.