RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Can­cers of the colon and rec­tum have dou­bled in the past decade in peo­ple un­der the age of 50 years, and since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic hit, many pa­tients have died be­cause of de­lays in get­ting med­ical care.

This was re­vealed by Dr Am­miel Ar­ra, Con­sul­tant Sur­gi­cal On­col­o­gist and HPB (He­pa­to-Pan­cre­at­ic-Bil­iary) Sur­geon at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

Speak­ing on CNC3's Ask the Doc­tor, Dr Ar­ra said:

"The re­cent scourge of the COVID 19 pan­dem­ic has done us no favours in the bat­tle against can­cers of all types."

He ex­plained that peo­ple have been un­will­ing to come to the hos­pi­tal for med­ical care and their di­ag­no­sis oc­curs when the can­cer spread has ac­cel­er­at­ed.

"De­lays in the pre­sen­ta­tion of pa­tients who avoid seek­ing med­ical care, as well as pro­longed wait­ing times to ac­cess ad­e­quate workup, and lim­it­ed re­sources to ini­ti­ate treat­ment have be­come com­mon­place in the pan­dem­ic era," he added.

He added, " Un­for­tu­nate­ly, these threat­en to ex­pand the COVID death toll to in­clude pa­tients who may nev­er have even con­tract­ed the coro­n­avirus."

Dr Ar­ra not­ed that can­cers of the colon and rec­tum are among the most com­mon in our pop­u­la­tion.

"In fact, in ad­di­tion to the trag­ic loss of life brought on by these can­cers, they al­so present a dev­as­tat­ing eco­nom­ic and so­cial im­pact on the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty," he not­ed.

Dr Ar­ra urged the pub­lic to take bet­ter care of their health by do­ing med­ical check-ups.

"Did you know that if col­orec­tal can­cers are de­tect­ed at an ear­ly stage, they can be cured by sim­ple sur­gi­cal or en­do­scop­ic re­moval, pre­vent­ing the need for ma­jor surgery, ra­di­a­tion treat­ment or chemother­a­py?" he said.

He not­ed that some can­cers may ex­ist in a dor­mant or pre-can­cer­ous form for sev­er­al years.

"Dur­ing this time, they can be iden­ti­fied and re­moved be­fore they gain the abil­i­ty to in­vade and spread to oth­er parts of the body. This process of iden­ti­fy­ing and treat­ing dis­eases at an ear­ly stage is known as screen­ing. While it may not be ap­plic­a­ble to all can­cers, screen­ing for col­orec­tal can­cer has been demon­strat­ed to be a safe, easy, and re­li­able process," he said.

He not­ed that a colonoscopy [vi­su­al­iza­tion of the in­side of the colon us­ing a cam­era in­tro­duced in­to the rec­tum], ra­di­o­log­i­cal imag­ing and stool tests are easy ways to iden­ti­fy can­cer.

"De­spite be­ing avail­able in our pop­u­la­tion, a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of pa­tients pre­sent­ing to the hos­pi­tal, do so at an ad­vanced stage. Many ad­mit to symp­toms pre-dat­ing their ar­rival to hos­pi­tal by months, which have been ei­ther ig­nored or mis­di­ag­nosed as triv­ial is­sues," he added.

Al­though screen­ing for col­orec­tal can­cers be­gins at the age of 50 for the av­er­age per­son, Dr Ar­ra said it can be rec­om­mend­ed even ear­li­er in pa­tients with a fam­i­ly his­to­ry or oth­er ge­net­ic dis­or­ders.

"Our team at San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal sug­gests that its in­ci­dence in the un­der 50 age group has dou­bled in the last decade," he added.

Dr Ar­ra said every­one must guard their health.

"Be vig­i­lant and re­mem­ber that de­spite COVID tak­ing the spot­light in re­cent times, the clas­si­cal dis­eases re­main quite present and a sig­nif­i­cant bur­den to the pop­u­la­tion," he said.

Dr Ar­ra al­so said any­one who no­tices rec­tal bleed­ing or blood in their stool, dif­fi­cul­ty pass­ing stool, un­in­ten­tion­al weight loss or tired­ness or even has a strong fam­i­ly his­to­ry of can­cer should do a thor­ough workup.

"As al­ways it is ad­vis­able to take steps to main­tain a healthy lifestyle to low­er your risk for colon can­cer," he said.

He urged cit­i­zens to have a healthy di­et low in fat and high in fi­bre, in­crease their phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, lim­it their con­sump­tion of al­co­hol and avoid smok­ing.