Pakistan lacks treatment facilities, even palliative care not available

Rawalpindi Cancer that has emerged as a major health threat in Pakistan claims not less than 50,000 deaths a year but still Pakistan lacks badly the facilities for treatment and management of cancers and it is ironical that even the palliative care is not available to cancer patients across the country.

Also there is no population-based cancer registry for systematic reporting of incidences of cancers in Pakistan making it hardly possible to have actual cancer statistics. According to estimates, however, around 300,000 new cancer patients are added to the existing pool of millions of cancer patients in the country every year. In Punjab alone, over 150,000 new patients of cancer are reported every year.

Many health experts have time and again expressed to ‘The News’ that the most alarming fact is that in Pakistan, majority of cancer patients are unable to receive treatment facilities and even the pain management in case of non-curable cancers.

In public sector hospitals of the country, majority of cancer patients are being refused treatment due to limited capacity of cancer beds and unavailability of oncologists. Furthermore, in almost all public sector healthcare facilities of the country, there are no facilities for even palliative care, the treatment to relieve symptoms caused by cancer.

Palliative care that can be defined as specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses like cancers focuses on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the disease with a goal to improve quality of life for both the patients and the families.

Palliative care is provided by a specially-trained team of doctors, nurses and other specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. This type of care treats pain, depression, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, difficulty in sleeping, anxiety and any other symptoms that may be causing distress.

According to health experts, palliative care that is considered as urgent humanitarian need for people with cancer in Pakistan may help people live more comfortably. It is important to mention that the federal government has been working out establishment of a cancer hospital in Islamabad however the scheme being added in the federal budgets for last five years has an un-approved status so far.

According to Head of Community Medicine at CMH Lahore Medical College Professor Dr Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry, palliative care is particularly required in places like Pakistan with a high proportion of patients with advanced stages where there is little chance of cure. There is a dire need to establish new cancer treatment facilities in the country, he said.

It is important that in Pakistan, a large proportion of cancers present at an advanced age. Health experts believe that lack of awareness about cancers, their signs and symptoms, is one of the major causes of delayed presentation. Experts say that awareness and education of masses is necessary to combat cancer, which is alarmingly increasing in the country.

Cancer is the uncontrolled growth and spread of cells that can affect almost any part of the body. The growth often invades surrounding tissue and can metastasize to distant sites. Lung, stomach, liver, colon and breast cancers cause the most cancer deaths in Pakistan.

Dr. Ashraf said there is a need to make public aware of the cancer’s seven warning signals that include change in bowel or bladder habit, a sore that does not heal, unusual bleeding or discharge, thickening or lump in breast or elsewhere, indigestion or difficulty in swallowing, obvious change in wart or mole and nagging cough or hoarseness.

He, like other health experts, believes that four basic components of cancer control are prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment, and palliative care. Various studies reveal that the current healthcare facilities are unable to provide health care to over 60 per cent of the cancer patients leaving majority to wander in corridors of different hospitals while a number of patients do not have access to the healthcare facilities for treatment of cancer at all.