The Indonesian Cancer Foundation (YKI) warned Wednesday of the need to increase awareness of the danger of the third most frequently diagnosed cancer in Indonesia, colorectal cancer, which affects the lining of the colon or rectum.
This form of cancer is the most frequently diagnosed nationally after lung cancer and breast cancer in woman and prostate cancer in man. The cancer is deadly but highly treatable when detected early.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 700,000 colorectal cancer patients, almost 2,000 a day, die every year worldwide. The number of male colorectal cancer patients is currently estimated at 401,000, while there are around 381,000 female patients.
“The causes of this cancer are mostly related to lifestyle,” said head of the Indonesian Internists Association, Dr. Aru W. Sudoyo. He added that diet (eating patterns), high intake of red meat, but low intake of vegetables and fruit, was the most common cause of colorectal cancer.
The cancer can also be brought on by age, the heredity, the over-consumption of alcohol, smoking, low level of physical activity, and obesity.
“In Indonesia, 30 percent of the colorectal patients are below 40 years old, while in most developed countries only 3 percent of them are below 40 years old,” Dr. Aru said.
He said prevention at an early age by applying healthy lifestyle habits like eating more dietary fiber, consuming vitamin D, C, and calcium, and fish is important, since the cancer mostly starts at age 20 to 25 before developing over 10 to 15 years.
He added early detection is vital to prevent the spread of the cancer.
“Public awareness is very vital for early detection, since this form of cancer is hard to detect,” said the lecturer at the University of Indonesia’s School of Medicine.
“One can’t easily detect the symptoms in the early stages because they are similar to the symptoms of the common stomachache,” he told The Jakarta Post.
If the cancer is detected at Stage I, the possibility of survival is between 85 and 95 percent, and if it detected is at Stage II the percentage falls to 60 to 80 percent. At stage III, the chances for survival stand at only between 30 and 60 percent. Most Indonesian patients come for treatment and are detected as having colorectal cancer when they are in Stage III of the disease.
Early detection can be undergone through the screening available at almost all public and private hospitals across the country, he said.
Current treatments for cancer are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, which are available at almost all public hospitals. And now there is also a newly invented medicine, Avastin, which works to block the blood supply to the cancer to slow its growth.
“But the treatments and medicines are mostly very expensive,” Dr. Aru said. (ipa/rdf)
