Health department pilots cancer screening programmes in two districts

To strengthen early diagnosis of cancers, the Health department is piloting cancer screening programmes in two districts. While screening for colorectal cancers is under way in Coimbatore district, generalised cancer screening for women is being designed for Ariyalur district.

Officials of the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project said that the screening programme has been taken up by the State’s Health department jointly with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and is funded by JICA. This was a part of the Project for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases in Tamil Nadu – TNNCD (Oncology) Project.

According to JICA’s newsletter, one of the project components is to strengthen early diagnosis of colorectal cancer for patients presenting with suspicious signs and symptoms at government health facilities.

“The process is on to start the screening in Ariyalur. It will be a generalised screening for women focusing on cervical and breast cancers. Training of staff is in progress,” an official said.

He added that through this screening, they are creating a protocol to identify cases at the primary level and refer to a higher health centre. “The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine takes care of the preventive screenings. If patients are identified in these two pilot districts, they will be routed to the treatment facilities in the government set-up. We have an upcoming Apex Centre at Karapettai where huge infrastructure is being built for cancer care,” he said.

Another official said that screening is offered at all levels. “In case of positive findings during screening, the confirmatory services are done at major Government Hospitals (GH), District Headquarters Hospitals or Government Medical College Hospitals. So, at Coimbatore, the confirmatory services will be mainly at the Pollachi GH and Coimbatore Government Medical College Hospital, and at Ariyalur, it will be at the Jeyamkondan GH and Government Medical College Hospital, Ariyalur,” the official said.

Colonoscopy is the confirmatory test for colorectal cancer. Colposcopy and mammography will be the next level confirmatory test for cervical cancer and breast cancers respectively, followed by biopsy of the suspicious lesions. On confirmation of disease in the biopsy samples, they will be referred for appropriate staging workup and treatment.

“We have Regional Cancer Centres at the Government Medical College Hospitals in Madurai, Coimbatore, Thanjavur, Tirunelveli, and Government Royapettah Hospital in Chennai. All three specialities of Surgical, Medical and Radiation Oncology are in place,” she said. At Coimbatore, patients are referred to the medical college hospital for further treatment, while at Ariyalur, as it is a newer institution, patients are referred to Thanjavur where all facilities including Linear Accelerator are available.

The 750-bed Apex Centre at Karapettai at Arignar Anna Memorial Cancer Hospital is coming up. Meanwhile, regional and tertiary cancer centres are being strengthened simultaneously by providing the required infrastructure and human resource, officials said.