LARKANA, March 21: The director of bio-sciences of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Syed Javaid Khurshid, has said that at present 13 breast cancer centres are providing treatment to patients in the country and three more centres will be set up soon in Gilgit, Gujranwala and Nawabshah. The proposed breast cancer treatment centres will cost Rs284 million, including a foreign exchange component of Rs127 million, he said.

Speaking at a seminar on cancer awareness marking the silver jubilee of the Larkana Institute of Nuclear Medicines and Radiotherapy here on Sunday, he said the national cancer registry programme would be started in the country in a month’s time.

He said under the national programme for breast cancer, mobile breast cancer clinics would start working at all centres and it would be mandatory for them to visit hospitals in district headquarters in the country every fortnight. He said the mobile breast cancer clinics would cost Rs190 million. He said there would be focus on providing maximum free facilities to cancer patients as the treatment cost was quite higher.

Dr Mohammed Faheem from Islamabad said attractive slogans and curiosity led to swelled up graph of smokers among youth.

He said six billion dollars were being spent in a year on advertisements of smoking in the US alone and studies depicted that smoking reduced the life span by 13.2 per cent and 14 per cent in men and women, respectively.

NORG national coordinator Dr Maj Ahsan Mahmoof, Dr Nadeem Zia Abbasi (Multan), Dr Shakeeb Younis (Lahore), Dr Mohammad Fahim (Islamabad), Dr Maj Abdul Samad (CMH Rawalpindi), Dr Safoora Shahid (Peshawar) and LINAR director Dr Siraj Abbasi spoke on the occasion.

They said smoking was the main cause of lung cancer leading to death and to bring down the menace it was necessary to get rid of smoking.

They termed lung cancer and breast cancer as the most fatal of all other kinds of cancer and said cancer was no more incurable if detected early.

They said lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death and added that 30 per cent of cancer could be prevented by quitting smoking.

He said smoking and obesity were the main causes of cancer. They said some 30 million new cancer patients were found throughout the world and about six million died of cancer.

They said breast cancer was found mostly in women and more than 32 per cent of them die. They said some 30 million new cancer patients were found throughout the world and the breast cancer was on the top in Pakistan.

The principal of the Chandka Medical College, Prof Sikandar Shaikh, said we were not so much successful regarding cancer and there was need of more work in the field of cancer treatment.

He underlined the need of coordination between the LINAR and the CMC hospital regarding the cancer treatment. Earlier, LINAR director Dr Siraj Abbasi welcomed guests and said the cancer threat was being met through awareness programmes.