4,500 cases of cancer at SKIMS, SMHS last year

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
More than 4,500 people were diagnosed with cancer in Kashmir’s two leading healthcare institutions —Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and Sri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital —according to official records.
Head of Department, Regional Cancer Centre, SKIMS, Dr Sheikh Aijaz said the hospital based registration showed that cancer was on rise in Kashmir.
“In 2007, we registered 2,000 cases of cancer while in 2015, we got around 4,000 cases,” said Dr Aijaz. “We don’t have the population based cancer registration in Kashmir, which presents a more credible account of the spread of disease, but the diagnostic trend cannot be ignored,” he said.
Head of Oncology Department at SMHS Hospital Dr Sanaullah Kuchhe said earlier, gastrointestinal cancers comprised 60 per cent of the total cancer cases diagnosed in Kashmir, but now, lung cancer was also on rise in the Valley.
“Even the younger generation in the Valley is suffering from lung cancer. People in 20s and 30s are very much prevalent with this cancer and the main reason is smoking and environmental pollution,” said Dr Kuchhe.
Dr Omar Kirmani, consultant, Radiology Department, SMHS hospital, said: “People come to test one organ and they get diagnosed with tumor in another organ. Mostly patients visiting SMHS are diagnosed of renal cancer (kidney cancer).”
“The Radiology Department is fully equipped with modern machinery. We have the world’s best Mammography machine, but unfortunately we lack the PET scan,” said Dr Kirmani. He suggested that a multi-modality cancer hospital should be established in the Valley as it was very harmful for some cancer patients to travel from one hospital to another.
 
Top