580 women screened at cancer detection camp

[sajiv]

580 women screened at cancer detection camp

VELLORE: A total of 580 women from in and around Vellore were screened at a cervical and breast cancer awareness-cum-detection camp organised by Arun Hospital and College of Nursing, Vellore, and Rose Garden Hospice for Cancer Patients, Tiruchi, on the Arun Hospital premises here on Friday.

N. Arivuselvam, Superintendent of Police, Vellore, inaugurated the camp. He said that many people did not know what diseases they had. He called upon the public to make use of such camps to know if they had any disease so that they could take timely treatment and obtain the cure.

V.S. Vijay, Managing Director, Arun Hospital and College of Nursing, Vellore, said that pap smears were taken for all 580 women who turned up for the camp and sent to Rose Garden Hospice, which has facilities to test the smear and find out if they had cancer. Cervical cancer was detected clinically in 11 women and breast cancer clinically detected in one woman. Besides taking the Pap smear, biopsy was done for these 12 women and specimens of tumour sent to the Rose Garden Hospice along with their smears. If cervical or breast cancer was confirmed in any of the persons screened at the camp, follow-up measures would be taken and the patients referred to Arignar Anna Cancer Hospital, Kancheepuram, for treatment, he said.

Dr. Vijay said that Govindaraj, oncologist, Sasipriya, radiotherapist, and Vijayalakshmi, radiologist from Rose Garden Hospice, and Chandrasena and Anitha, gynaecologists from Vellore, examined the women.

A.M. Ikram, Assistant Commandant General, Home Guards, Vellore Range, and Regina Prasad, Principal, Arun College of Nursing, spoke. Parasuraman, Area Manager, Equitas, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), said that several members of women self-help groups promoted by the NGO were mobilised to undergo the tests at the camp.