Thousands of new cancer cases diagnosed each year could be avoided by changing the modifiable risk factors or promoting healthy lifestyles, Health Ministry Secretary Dr. Palitha Mahipala said.
Dr. Mahipala made this observation while participating as the Chief Guest at the inauguration of 21st Annual Academic Sessions of the Sri Lanka College of Oncologists held in Colombo under the theme ‘Expanding Horizons, Enhancing Lives’ recently.
As per the statistics of the World Health Organisation, over 35 million new cancer cases are predicted in 2050, a 77 percent increase from the estimated 20 million cases in 2022.
Dr. Mahipala also said that a large proportion of cancer cases and deaths that were attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors, including sleep, smoking, second hand smoking, excess body weight, alcohol consumption, poor diet, physical inactivity, ultraviolet (UV) radiation and infection with viruses known to cause cancer, like HPV.
The Health Ministry Secretary further said that there were more than 33,000 new cancer cases and 19,000 deaths reported last year, oral cancer among men and breast cancer among women are high.
Dr. Mahipala further said that cancer remains one of the global health challenges. Like many other countries Sri Lanka is also facing an increasing burden of cancer, with over 33,000 new cancer cases reported last year and 19,000 deaths.
“Breast, cervical, lung and colon cancers are the leading causes of death in this country, and significantly, oral cancer has the highest rate among men (16.5 cases per 100,000 population in 1990), while breast cancer has a higher rate among women. (4,555 patients as 27.3 patients per 100,000 population). It was also pointed out that since oral cancer and breast cancer are high rates, urgent measures should be taken for prevention, early detection and treatment,” he said.
Globally, 5 to 10 percent of all cancers are attributable to genetic defects, and a significant proportion of cancers, up to 95 percent, are attributable to environmental and lifestyle factors such as tobacco, alcohol, nutrition, and physical inactivity. By addressing these modifiable risk factors and promoting healthy lifestyles, we can prevent thousands of cancer cases each year, and prevention is our most powerful tool in the fight against cancer, which is not only cost-effective but can also become incurable later.
“The SLCO plays a major role in the fight against cancer and the collective work of the Sri Lanka College of Oncology is exemplary in its efforts to raise standards of cancer care, facilitate knowledge sharing and foster collaboration among healthcare professionals,” said the Health Secretary and added that it has directly contributed to the improvement of cancer care across the nation.
SLCO Secretary Dr. Buddhika Somawardena said, “The SLCO is the professional body which unites all the oncologists and we have around 200 members which includes hemato oncologists, pediatric oncologists, surgical oncologists as well as the gynecologic oncologists. Every year we have the annual academic sessions and this year we have conducted the 21st annual academic session. We had a very vast array of topics covered this time and that helps promote collaborations and also foster collaborations and promote the knowledge sharing among professionals and we make sure that our professionals are a fraternity that upto date we can offer updated treatments for our patients.”
He also said that the event was endorsed by one of the world’s largest bone marrow transplant associations European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT). “We have signed a MoU with the EBMT. That signals we have a long way to go and collaborations in the long run will be helpful to our fraternity, hemato oncologists in particular. We are also formulating one alliance BMT Sri Lanka uniting all the experts in the country interested in Stem Cell transplantation or bone marrow transplantation which is a very growing topic in Sri Lanka at present,” he added.
SLCO President Dr. Umagouri Saravanamuthu, Immediate Past President Dr. Prasad Abeysinghe, Past President Dr. Mahendra Perera and the members of the SLCO participated.
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