HYDERABAD: IF you haven’t been paying attention to messages screened in cinema halls about tobacco-related cancer, this study done at MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Center in Hyderabad might help understand the gravity of the problem. A retrospective study of 258 cases of oral cancer reported in one year at the city hospital has shown that whopping 97 per cent of those patients regularly consumed smokeless tobacco, followed by alcohol and smoking tobacco.
Of the 258 patients, 205 were addicted to smokeless tobacco -- 82 patients reported to using gutka, 32 paan, 20 zarda, 4 khaini and 67 others used more than one of those products. Alcohol and smoking were not far behind; 118 were addicted to alcohol and 93 smoked cigarettes, beedi or chutta. Around quarter of the cases -- 65 of them -- were addicted to smoking as well as alcohol. The severity of cancer was found to be the same immaterial of the nature of substance used.
Of the 205 smokeless tobacco consumers, 126 were found to be suffering from stage-IV cancer — 62 per cent. Meanwhile, 58 of the 93 smokers and 44 out of 65 alcohol consumers had stage-IV cancer — 62 and 67 per cent respectively. Overall, in 55.8 per cent of them cancer had progressed to stage-IV and tumour spread to other parts of the body. Only 12 per cent had early stages of cancer.
Dr AVS Suresh, Medical Oncologist and Hematologist in the city says, “It is the higher exposure time and deposition of cancer causing elements on buccal mucosa in smokeless tobacco which makes it more dangerous than smoking tobacco but both are dangerous and can cause cancer. It is also much more difficult to get rid of smokeless tobacco habit, which usually results in development of cancer in 5-15 years of usage.”