CUTTACK: Even as liver cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is becoming a serious public health concern in the country, detection of cancer in advanced stages is making treatment difficult and many lives are lost in the process.
Health experts, who came together at a two-day conference on ‘Guidelines for management of HCC in India’, organised by the Indian National Association for Study of Liver (INASL) in Puri, expressed concern over the rising mortality due to liver cancer in the country.
“More than 80 per cent of the patients suffering from liver cancer usually report for treatment in intermediate and advanced stages. If the cancer is detected in early stage, there are ways to effectively manage it. With majority reporting in advanced stages, it is important to formulate strategies for their management, and thus save lives,” said Prof. SP Singh, convener, HCC Taskforce.
Attending the conference, Prof Dr Vinod K Paul, member NITI Aayog, expressed concern over growing mortality rate due to chronic liver disease.“Sufficient health infrastructure has been created by the Central government. Despite that, around 2.72 lakh people are dying annually in India due to liver cirrhosis,” said Paul, calling upon the experts to find ways to curb deaths and advise the government as to what needs to be done to improve the condition of liver cancer patients in intermediate and advanced stages.
A lot of new medications and therapeutic interventions have come up for treating liver cancer. It should be a combined effort of physicians (hepatologist), radiation oncologist, liver surgeon, transplant surgeon, medical oncologist and nuclear medicine, Prof. Singh said, and added the objective of the meeting was to formulate standardised guidelines for treatment and management of HCC.
As many as 35 experts from across the country participated in the meeting presided by Chairman HCC Taskforce, Dr Subrat Kumar Acharya. Member of the taskforce, Dr. Manoj Kumar Sahu of Apollo Hospital had coordinated the conference.