Dr Sherene Kalloo

Con­sul­tant Ob­ste­tri­cian and Gy­nae­col­o­gist

As a gy­nae­col­o­gist, I have the priv­i­lege of car­ing for women through every stage of life—from ado­les­cence and moth­er­hood to menopause and be­yond. As this coun­try ob­served World Can­cer Day on Feb­ru­ary 4, I want­ed to share an im­por­tant mes­sage: many can­cers af­fect­ing women can be pre­vent­ed, de­tect­ed ear­ly, or treat­ed suc­cess­ful­ly if we act in a time­ly man­ner.

Can­cers of the breast, cervix, uterus, ovary, colon, skin, and pan­creas re­main ma­jor health chal­lenges world­wide. Aware­ness, screen­ing, and ear­ly med­ical at­ten­tion are among the strongest tools we have.

Breast can­cer: Ear­ly de­tec­tion saves lives

Breast can­cer is still the most com­mon can­cer af­fect­ing women world­wide. Risk in­creas­es with age, but it can oc­cur at any stage of adult­hood.

Women should:

• Be fa­mil­iar with the nor­mal look and feel of their breast

• Do their own breast ex­am­i­na­tion month­ly

• Seek med­ical re­view for any lump, nip­ple dis­charge, skin change, or per­sis­tent pain

• Be­gin mam­mog­ra­phy and ul­tra­sound screen­ing from age 40–50 years, or ear­li­er if there is a strong fam­i­ly his­to­ry or if any ab­nor­mal­i­ty is dis­cov­ered

Ear­ly de­tec­tion dra­mat­i­cal­ly im­proves sur­vival.

Cer­vi­cal can­cer: One of the most pre­ventable dis­eases

Reg­u­lar Pap smears and HPV test­ing can de­tect pre­can­cer­ous changes long be­fore can­cer de­vel­ops and can be com­plete­ly treat­ed. The HPV vac­cine of­fers pow­er­ful pro­tec­tion and is strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed for el­i­gi­ble girls, boys and women.

Uter­ine (En­dome­tri­al) can­cer: Bleed­ing is a warn­ing sign

Uter­ine can­cer is one of the most com­mon gy­nae­co­log­i­cal can­cers, par­tic­u­lar­ly af­ter menopause.

Post-menopausal bleed­ing af­ter 1 year of no pe­ri­od is NOT nor­mal and should al­ways be in­ves­ti­gat­ed.

Even a sin­gle episode of bleed­ing, spot­ting, or blood-stained dis­charge af­ter menopause re­quires prompt med­ical eval­u­a­tion.

Women who are pre-menopausal should al­so seek care for:

• Heavy or pro­longed men­stru­al bleed­ing

• Bleed­ing be­tween pe­ri­ods

• Bleed­ing af­ter sex­u­al in­ter­course

Ear­ly de­tec­tion of uter­ine can­cer of­ten leads to ex­cel­lent out­comes.

Colon can­cer: Screen­ing saves lives

Colon can­cer af­fects both women and men and is in­creas­ing­ly di­ag­nosed at younger ages. Any un­usu­al bow­el changes must be in­ves­ti­gat­ed.

• Screen­ing is rec­om­mend­ed from the age of 45–50 years, or ear­li­er, with a fam­i­ly his­to­ry

• Stool tests and colonoscopy can de­tect can­cer ear­ly or pre­vent it al­to­geth­er

Skin Can­cer: Watch

for changes

Skin can­cer is com­mon but of­ten over­looked.

• Look for new or chang­ing moles, non-heal­ing sores, or ir­reg­u­lar pig­ment­ed le­sions

• Pro­tect your skin from ex­ces­sive sun ex­po­sure

• Seek med­ical ad­vice for sus­pi­cious skin changes

Pan­cre­at­ic can­cer: Know when to seek help

Rou­tine screen­ing is not ad­vised for the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion. How­ev­er, women with a strong fam­i­ly his­to­ry or ge­net­ic risk should dis­cuss sur­veil­lance with their doc­tor. Per­sis­tent symp­toms such as un­ex­plained weight loss, jaun­dice, or on­go­ing ab­dom­i­nal pain should nev­er be ig­nored.

Lifestyle choic­es mat­ter

Main­tain­ing a healthy weight, eat­ing a bal­anced di­et, ex­er­cis­ing reg­u­lar­ly, lim­it­ing al­co­hol, avoid­ing to­bac­co, man­ag­ing stress, and en­sur­ing ad­e­quate sleep all re­duce can­cer risk. Men­tal well-be­ing is an es­sen­tial part of phys­i­cal health.

Know your per­son­al risk

A fam­i­ly his­to­ry of breast, ovar­i­an, uter­ine, colon, or pan­cre­at­ic can­cer may in­crease your risk. Shar­ing this in­for­ma­tion with your health­care provider can guide ear­li­er screen­ing or ge­net­ic coun­selling.

Lis­ten to your

body—and act

Women of­ten care for every­one else first. With World Can­cer Day in mind, I urge you to put your own health at the top of the list. Post-menopausal bleed­ing, per­sis­tent pain, un­ex­plained weight loss, or any un­usu­al change should nev­er be ig­nored.

Most im­por­tant­ly, let aware­ness turn in­to ac­tion. Sched­ule your screen­ing. Don’t pro­cras­ti­nate. Don’t be afraid. Ask ques­tions. En­cour­age an­oth­er woman to do the same. Through pre­ven­tion and ear­ly de­tec­tion, we can re­duce the cost and psy­cho­log­i­cal bur­den of can­cer and save lives.

Dr Sherene Kalloo

MBBS, DGO, DM, FACOG, MDW

Spe­cial­ist Ob­ste­tri­cian & Gy­nae­col­o­gist