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4 signs that you may have cancer
Dr Nixon Niyonzima, head of research and training at UCI. PHOTO/PRECIOUS DELILAH
What you need to know:
- The medics say more than 70 percent of cancers are detected late when they are at stage three and four, which is incurable.
Doctors have urged the public to be on the lookout for early symptoms of cancer if they are to manage the deadly disease whose survival rate is very low if detected in advanced stages.
Dr Nixon Niyonzima, the head of research and training at Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), yesterday said more than 70 percent of cancers are detected late when they are at stage three and four, which is incurable.
“The best way to beat cancer is to get an early diagnosis. If the cancer is still in its early stages, surgery can be performed and those lesions removed. Even if you screen and find abnormal cells, still they can be removed surgically” Dr Niyonzima explained in an interview with this newspaper yesterday.
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According to Dr Niyonzima, one of the warning signs to look out for is the unexplained weight loss.
“Generally, the early symptoms of cancer are not specific, in the sense that they are symptoms and signs that are similar to many diseases but generally we talk about unexplained symptoms such as weight loss greater than 10 percent that is unexplained or unplanned,” he said.
The other symptom that Dr Niyonzima asked the public to look out for is unexplained bleeding from any opening of the body part.
“The other sign is the unexplained bleeding; bleeding from the cervix, the mouth, sometimes even bleeding under the skin. So all these are signs of cancer but they are non-specific because they could be also be for other diseases,” Dr Niyonzima added.
The other symptom or sign is pain that doesn’t go away or experiencing pain for an elongated period of time that isn’t caused by anything specific and also swellings of any kind.
“We also cite pains that are unexplained and long standing, if you have not got an injury and you have long standing pains which you can’t explain, it could be a warning sign,” he said.
Dr Niyonzima also clarified that not all the aforementioned signs mean that one has cancer.
“Surviving from cancer is premised on very many things. First of all, if the patient is diagnosed early. So, here at the institute, 70 percent, and for some cancers even 85 percent, are stage three and four. Now if you look at breast cancer, 77 percent of our patients are stage three and stage four, and the same goes for cervical cancer. However, our five-year survival rate for those cancers is 52 percent, which means they go on to live past the five years.”
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What to do to prevent cancer
According to Dr Niyonzima, the first step towards preventing cancer, especially types such as cervical cancer, is vaccination.
“To avoid cancer, the first way is vaccination for those cancers that can be vaccinated against, that is those caused by the HPV. Hepatitis B are the major causes of cancer, the vaccines are available and free,” he said.
“HPV is a virus called the human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes a number of cancers, most commonly cervical cancer. This virus can be vaccinated against, especially for people who are not yet sexually active and we target age group 10-14 years,” he said.
A change of lifestyle can also contribute a lot to preventing cancer or even managing it.
How to avoid cancer
Doctors advise regular exercises and healthy diets as some of the ways one can change their lifestyle to avoid cancer. According to UCI, they receive 7,000 new cases of cervical cancer every year and a total of about 34,000 cases of cancer per year.
