People are choosing palliative care for management of life-threatening illnesses like cancer and HIV/AIDS, and the trend is gathering pace in developing countries like India.
Palliative care is also known as supportive care and can be provided relatively simply and inexpensively. India is taking progressive steps in enhancing access to palliative care and making it affordable as well.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Cancer is the second most leading cause of death globally, accounting for an estimated 9.9 million deaths in 2020 . Between 2010 and 2019, global cancer incidence increased by 26%, alongside a 21% increase in cancer deaths. An estimated one third of cancer deaths globally are due to tobacco use, high body mass index, alcohol use, low fruit and vegetable intake, and lack of physical activity.
Despite massive levels of advocacy and layers of awareness spread across the world every year, people are falling prey to cancer, even without being exposed to its risk factors. This means, anyone can get cancer at any point in his/her life. This makes palliative care a gamechanger in management of a disease like cancer, by improving the patient’s quality of life and maintaining independence by reducing symptoms, managing pain, and supporting patients and their families.
“Palliative care can be given at any time during cancer treatment, including right after cancer is diagnosed or after cancer treatment is completed. It has been found to be helpful in enhancing the quality of life of those with breast cancer. It is a range of symptom management services provided by professionals like nursing, physician, paramedics, pharmacists, and support workers. Not many people were aware of palliative care, but we have seen increasing levels of awareness on the same in the past few years,” Dr. Shalabh Arora, Consultant Medical and Hemato Oncologist, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, said in a statement.
Dr. Suversha Khanna, Director, Dharamshila Rahat Supportive and Palliative Care Centre, says that social stigma and lack of awareness are leading to an increase in deaths from chronic diseases in the country, like cancer and diabetes.
According to Dr. Khanna, iIn the case of breast cancer, women in some parts of the country still hesitate to mammography and self-examination. Similarly, for other cancer conditions, people do not visit the doctor until it is too late to cure the situation. Also, due to factors like urbanization, population explosion, and unemployment, the incidence of incurable, chronic, progressive, and life-threatening diseases is on the rise, Dr. Khanna emphasised.
“Approximately 60-70% of cancer patients report to the hospital when it is too late. This is mostly due to the lack of facilities for early diagnosis, standard treatment, and palliative care. There are very few dedicated palliative care centers in India for providing palliative care to improve patients’ quality of life and survival rates. Cancer mortality is so high because of a lack of awareness about the risk factors of getting cancer, carelessness, late diagnosis, poor treatment, and palliative care facilities in small towns. Palliative care is an age-old tradition and hence most people have no idea about its holistic approach to helping patients with chronic conditions. Spreading education about such facilities can help a lot of people to heal spiritually, socially, emotionally, and psychosocially, rather than focusing only on medications like mainstream hospitals,”Dr. Khanna added.
