Turkey develops new program in uphill battle against cancer
Reported April 03, 2009
Turkey, which spent a total of 2.5 million euros on cancer treatment last year, is aiming to reduce future cancer cases by one-third and to increase the recovery rate from 15 to 80 percent, with the Ministry of Health having already drawn up a national program that includes free screening services and the opening of early diagnosis and treatment centers in order to reach these aims.
The Health Ministry is hoping to increase public awareness of cancer by designating the first week of this month as Cancer Week. As part of the program, a symposium of medical experts is being hosted in Ankara to promote discussion of all aspects of this disease.
Turkey is already in the middle of its fight against cancer, but it is aiming to prevent at least three out of 10 future cancer cases within 10 years, increase the recovery level for certain cancers, such as breast, throat and cervical cancer, from 15 to 80 percent and reach a 70 percent figure for full recovery in childhood cancers. It is also hoping to supply palliative treatment for all cancer patients within five years. In the meantime, the Health Ministry wants to increase public awareness about the causes of cancer, particularly the negative effects of smoking. Turkey implemented a major anti-smoking law last year and is also planning to introduce new restrictions on smoking in July. Lung cancer is the most common type of cancer in Turkey due to widespread smoking. Out of every 100,000 Turkish citizens, 29.51 people have lung cancer and men are eight times more at risk than women.
After lung cancer, the 10 most common types of cancers in Turkey (based on frequency in 100,000 people) are as follows: prostate (19.39), breast (17.54), skin (16.67), stomach (9.35) bladder (8.81), colon (7.24), leukemia (6.28), endometrial (6.08) and ovarian (5.86).
Turkey should quit smoking
Professor Nazmi Bilir, from Hacettepe Universitys public health department, said that over the last 40 years the incidence of lung cancer has risen 4,300 percent because of smoking. Between 1984, the year in which tobacco imports were legalized, and 2000, the smoking rate increased by 80 percent. After starting to implement rules on smoking, Western countries saw a sharp decrease in lung cancer rates. We have been late in implementing such rules, but we are hoping to get results in the future, he explained.
Professor Murat Tuncer, head of the Ministry of Healths anti-cancer department, also stressed that despite all the efforts of the ministry and all the money that has been spent, the best way to fight cancer is to increase public awareness and get people to give up smoking.
He emphasized that one of the main aims of Turkeys national program that was praised by the World Health Organization (WHO) is the increase in the number of centers that provide free screening services. These centers, which have been established in every province in Turkey, are also trying to increase public awareness about cancer and its causes. He added that in the next 15 years the ministry is planning to open 54 cancer centers to deal with all aspects of the disease.
He also underlined that Turkey is taking serious measures to address environmental causes of cancer, such as arsenic, asbestos and erionite, which present a significant problem in Turkey.
In particular, due to our geological circumstances, natural asbestos occurrence is encountered in more than 80 settlements in our 61 provinces and in some of these settlements it poses a considerable threat to human life. An extensive program has been initiated in order to prevent erosion and uninformed use of land, he said.
Source : AYSE KARABAT ANKARA
