What is Head & Neck Cancer?

Did you know that head and neck cancer is among the top three most common cancers, right there along with breast and lung cancer?

“It is the disease of the lower social economic group,” says Dr Arif Jamshed, Consultant Clinical Oncologists at SKMCH. “So most of the time it does not get that kind of attention, which some of the high profile cancers like prostrate and breast cancer would get. Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are the hot spots of head and neck cancer.”

In continuation with its on going program on head and neck cancer, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH) organized ‘Back to Basics’ -a Head & Neck Cancer Conference in Karachi. In his address to the participants, Dr Arif Jamshed had this to say:

“If we are to make any progress in this, the first step is to create public awareness, because this disease is a preventable disease. Smoking and beetle chewing are the major causes. 7 out of 10 patients actually have one of these risk factors, which later on develop the cancer.

“When it comes to treatment, we need to formulate local guidelines because this disease in our country is on an advanced level. Therefore, it becomes obvious that we need to do more work in this direction and hopefully once we take the rights steps, results will come through themselves.”

Adding to this, Dr Raza Hussain –our Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon at SKMCH emphasized, “In a country like Pakistan where less than 1% of the total budget is spent on health and education, it is difficult to train, educate, and spread awareness, especially of head and neck cancer.”

The discussions were educationally stimulating. We hope that more such meetings can be organised in the future as well especially in other parts of the country.

The Back to Basics Conference focused on providing care in the context of overwhelming head and neck cancer burden in an economically disadvantaged setting. The format of the conference provided an ideal platform for professionals to share their experiences and challenges in managing patients with head and neck cancer.

The major portion of Back to Basics workshops comprised of interactive sessions where complex cases were discussed. A panel of experts also gave their opinion after audience poll on management options for these patients. A huge number of papers were received, and after approval by the scientific committee, selected researchers were given the opportunity to present their original work