Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday has sought PET scan facility at Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar.
“That would help in early detection of cancer and save lives,” said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
“When a cancer is detected at an early stage, the chances of survival are dramatically higher than when detected at a later stage when the tumor has spread and the disease is advanced,” he said.
Dr Hassan said position emission tomography (PET) scan has since decades played an instrumental role in fight against cancer by early and better diagnosis of the disease.
“PET scan can check whether the cancer has spread,” he said adding “It can assess the effectiveness of cancer treatment and find out whether cancer has come back after treatment.”
The DAK President said we have one PET scan at SKIMS hospital, but it is not able to cope with huge burden of cancer cases in the valley.
“Patients have to wait for months for PET scan which adversely affects patient outcome,” he said.
Dr Nisar said GMC Srinagar and its associated hospitals cater to a large number of cancer patients and in absence of PET scan it is hard for doctors to diagnose, treat and manage cancer cases.
“Cancer has reached to epidemic proportions in Jammu and Kashmir.
As per the union health ministry figures, JK has reported an estimated 51,577 cancer cases in last four years.
More than 22,000 people have died due to cancer during the period of 2018 to 2021,” he said.—GK
