MOBILE TREATMENT
Now, cancer detection gets a pair of wheels
Mumbai: If they cant come to a clinic, reach out to them at their homes. Breast cancer detection goes mobile, with diagnostic units and doctors going to womens doorsteps instead of waiting for going to the doctor.
While voluntary organisation Roko Cancer flagged off its mobile breast cancer detection unit on Monday, cancer hub Tata Memorial Hospital which has been tracking 1.5 lakh Mumbai women for breast cancer for the past eight years will soon unveil its high-tech breast cancer detection unit-on-wheels.
We realised there is a lot of hesitation among women to go to a clinic. With a mobile unit at their doorstep, all it takes is a 15 minute break, even if they are cooking or looking after kids, said Isha Bhandari, director of MKC trust-run Roko Cancer, an NGO started by a UK-based Ajindra Pal Singh Chawla after his wife died of breast cancer.
The unit equipped with a state-of-the-art mammography machine and manned by doctors will weave through villages and smaller towns roping in other organisations, conducting examinations and providing scans to women free-of-cost besides equipping them with information about the condition.
Early detection is the need of the hour, says Dr Rajendra Badwe, head of surgical oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital as he reels off statistics to underline his point. It is estimated that breast cancer is detected among eight rural and 30 city women per lakh in India every year. Varied reasons, from late first pregnancies to no breastfeeding to obesity, put women at a higher risk.
Tata Hospital will be inaugurating a mobile detection unit alongwith the Womens Cancer initiative within six months, said Dr Badwe. TNN