Every year we celebrate World Cancer Day to raise awareness and act towards prevention, early detection, and treatment.
As a caring employer and having the upright aim of maintaining our deep belief in “BDO Solutions, A Place Where People Matter”, we rolled out our 3Rs programme taking various initiatives to translate our intentions into actions aligning ourselves to the objectives set up by the WHO.
On this glorious path, in which symbolic shadow we stand, is a great beacon light of hope. We collaborated with professionals to carry out breast cancer screening and health checks for our employees in October and November 2022.
World Cancer Day is more than a day on the calendar. In view of raising global awareness the WHO has embarked on a 3-year campaign (as from 2022) named “Close the Care Gap” with specified objectives for each year to build global awareness and ultimately more impact.
Objective of World Cancer Day 2022 Theme: Realizing the problem
The focus was on understanding and recognizing the challenges of cancer care globally.
Objective of World Cancer Day 2023 Theme: Uniting our voices and taking action
The aim is to build stronger alliances and new collaborations to unite the voices of like-minded people to make a powerful appeal.
CANCER SYMPTOMS
By Dr. Yegeshwaree A. Autar
Awareness of cancer symptoms can help spot the signs and take actions earlier. These symptoms don’t always mean cancer.
Some common symptoms are listed below:
- Unexplained fatigue
- Night sweats
- Loss of appetite
- Unexplained weight loss
- Blood in urine +/- stool
- Post-menopausal bleeding
- Persistent pain
- Persistent Cough
- Unexplained Lumps
- Unexplained headaches
However, we should also bear in mind that Cancer can be asymptomatic or can be from an incidental finding.
In Mauritius, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer and lung cancer are most common in males, while in females it’s breast cancer, followed by endometrial and colorectal cancer. The mortality rate is less than 1% but quite significant for us, as they are discovered late, or the patient comes to the clinic when it has already reached an advanced stage.
Lung cancer
Chronic cough, shortness of breath, bloody sputum are common symptoms to watch out for lung cancer, especially for person with chronic smoking habits.
Prostate Cancer
For prostate cancer, patient usually present with a change in urine habit, frequent urination, decrease in urine flow, bloody urine and so on.
Breast cancer
Early warning signs of breast cancer is a breast lump, change in skin colour, itchiness, nipple retraction and nipple discharge. Mammography is recommended for women above than 40 years every 2 years for detection.
Endometrial cancer
Postmenopausal bleeding is one of the alarming signs for endometrial cancer, followed by abdominal pain, painful intercourse, abdominal mass.
Colorectal cancer
For colorectal cancer, bloody stool is a very common symptom with constipation and abdominal pain; can be detected through colonoscopy.
It's better to be examined by a health professional and be diagnosed after proper investigations.
CANCER PREVENTION
By Dr Samia Hafez Amir
Some key factors that can help prevent cancer are:
- Maintain a healthy lifestyle
- Eating a healthy balanced diet: reduced the consumption of overly processed and refined foods, reduce consumption of processed and red meat, increase consumption of fibre and foods in their natural form Be physically active throughout the day (not just 1-2 hours of gym!) Maintain a healthy weight Drink less alcohol Stop smoking
- Protect the skin from sun damage
- Know your body: be able to recognise changes such as lumps, rashes/unexplained bleeding, etc.
- Participate in screenings: can help detect early signs and pre-cancerous lesions, early detection can save lives
- Do regular check-ups at your GP (General Practitioner)
- There are some cancers which can be prevented by vaccination, e.g. cervical cancer can be prevented by vaccines against HPV.