About one lakh new breast cancer cases are diagnosed in the country every year and 52,000 succumb to it primarily due to lack of awareness and screening. A WHO report says that 65 percent people in India are diagnosed only when they are in stage III or IV- an advanced stage of the disease.
It is to create the awareness on the importance of early detection, the Breast Imaging Society (India) (BISI) organised BISICON 2013, the first national conference for doctors and medical experts here on Saturday. Speaking at the inauguration of the conference, Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals said that standardisation and a checklist should be made that could be followed to deliver better healthcare. “For a non-doctor, when I saw the statistics of breast cancer and came to know that about one lakh people are detected, I got frightened. The lesson is that it’s curable if detected early,” she said.
Earlier speaking on the objective of BISI, Dr (Col) CS Pant, organising chairman, BISICON 2013 and Chairman BISI said that it is to educate medical professionals on the imaging and intervention techniques related breast diseases, conduct awareness programmes and promote welfare of patients with breast cancer and other diseases. BISI also aims at promoting research in breast imaging and intervention.
The two-day conference also had a series of hands-on workshops that provided the participants a practical experience in multi-modality breast imaging and interventional procedures. The workshops were designed along international lines, with simulated diagnostic and interventional modules conducted by highly qualified faculty. Dr Bagyam Raghavan, Secretary BISICON 2013 was also present at the function.