Day’s rallying call offers hope against cancer

The nobility of the World Cancer Day, marked nationally and globally yesterday, shall have been lost if the campaign does not generate new understanding and remedial actions against the disease.

Unlike malaria, HIV-related complications, and tuberculosis, cancer has been described as the silent killer. It is the ultimate cause of deaths whose toll surpasses that of malaria, TB and HIV-related cases combined.

But more worrying is that even though research shows at least 80,000 new cases of cancer annually, Kenya lacks the capacity to handle this lifestyle disease.

The cases of cancer could be far more because of unreported and undiagnosed instances. But the theme of the occasion, this year, offers hope and assurance.

The rallying call, ‘Cancer Can be Prevented too’, is assuring because, even in the face of a national deficit of oncologists, individuals can work towards reducing new cases.

While major action points must include public health systems and therapy, individuals must begin to recast their lifestyles to reduce cancerous infections.

The most obvious and often stated is avoidance of tobacco use, and reducing exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

Other preventive points include reducing exposure to the sun, limiting alcohol consumption, and maintaining healthy weight through eating well and regular exercise.

Cancer can be prevented. There is hope and there is a way.