A common cancer here, but preventable
The majority of patients come from a relatively low socio-economic background; they are farmers, estate workers, fishermen, three wheeler and bus drivers, labourers etc. Now this is very unique to oral cancer and this is because the risky habits like betel chewing, smoking and alcohol consumption are commonly found in these communities.
What is very concerning is that, these patients are already in a life struggle on a daily basis. This is worsened in the current situation in the country. So on top of it all, a diagnosis of an oral cancer is an unbearable double burden.
A diagnosis of any cancer changes one’s whole life. We all have a general perception about life, as to why we are here, what life means to me, etc. This is suddenly disturbed by a diagnosis of cancer and a person has to find new meaning in life. It takes time to accept, adapt and conquer the challenges, and requires much support from all around – psychological, spiritual, medical and financial. Therefore, each of us has a unique role to play in helping someone with cancer find new meaning to life.
Oral cancer also carries a unique burden or distress due to the location of the lesion. In oral cancer the impact to the face of the patient is critical. This is due to the disease as well as the treatment outcomes which are unavoidable. The face is considered to be the sole identity of being a human. Therefore, when it is disfigured the negative impact on the psychology of the patient and also the caregiver is massive.
Moreover, patients with oral cancer experience many difficulties when performing basic day to day functions like breathing, eating, swallowing and speaking. Hampering these basics results in massive psychological distress of the patients and caregivers.
Collectively, patients with oral cancer are a unique group with different social, psychological and financial needs. Therefore, a general approach will not address their specific suffering. Purely providing health care alone may not be sufficient to uplift the quality of life of these patients as well as the family members.
Have we really understood the needs of oral cancer patients in our society? Have we got together to support them in whatever way we can?
When someone is diagnosed with oral cancer the diagnosis is given in a very careful manner so that the receiving patient and the family members are mentally ready to move on with the cancer journey.
There are mainly four aspects where patients would need support.
1. Physical support – This is more or less being taken care of by the health sector to a greater extent. Yet, we should be sensitive to their altered basic functions in breathing, eating, swallowing and speaking. They are unable to eat and drink as we do. Therefore, special methods like grinding of food is needed for which they need to be financially capable which is rarely the case.
2. Psychological/ emotional support –
The cancer journey is a stressful one. As patients who are already in the daily life struggle, they need high levels of emotional support- counselling, helping them with techniques like mindfulness etc, in one to one sessions or as groups in the hospital set-up or at the patients residence as they share different kinds of problems that other cancer patients often do not have.
3. Social support – After the diagnosis of oral cancer the patient undergoes an array of social issues when relating to family members and friends due to many underlying issues like the stigma attached to cancer, the myths and also the disfigurement of face and loss of daily living which paves the way to many social issues. Therefore, having a special supportive group to address these issues and to empower the patient and the family members is important.
4. Spiritual support – Since after the diagnosis of cancer, the patient is in a window period where they try to find the new meaning of life, whatever the spiritual life he or she had before the diagnosis is highly important to accept and adapt to the challenging situation.
This should be tailormade to each patient by the relevant religious leaders.
5. Financial support – As patients with oral cancer are mostly from relatively low socie-conomic communities and since oral cancer is predominantly found in males, in most cases the breadwinner of the family, this drags the whole family into a catastrophic situation. There is already an allowance given by the District Secretariat of each area to all patients with cancers but a disparity exists in the amounts given between the districts in Sri Lanka which needs to be addressed. Moreover, this is hardly adequate to overcome financial constraints of an oral cancer patient. Therefore, as general citizens, possibilities could be explored to empower them for a self- employment.
The health sector cannot achieve this task alone.
Any civil society organizations or volunteers or an individual interested in initiating a supportive care programme for patients with oral cancer are kindly invited to get in touch with the National Cancer Control Programme which is the national body in coordinating cancer control activities in Sri Lanka. It would be beneficial to coordinate with the 24 cancer treatment centres and more than 30 Oro–Maxilo Facial (OMF) units spread throughout the country for any proactive interventions of improving the quality of life of oral cancer patients.
| Main causes | |
| The main causes of oral cancer are chewing tobacco with betel or any other form, chewing arecanut packets, smoking and drinking alcohol. Usage of these arecanut packets is increasingly becoming popular among our youngsters which will pave the way to a disaster in near future. Therefore, this is a red notice to all the parents, teachers and youngsters to be aware of these new products in the market and empower your loved ones to say ‘no’ to them. What we can do?
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