Doctor Zawow Eugewio from Italy and Professor Dr Fritz Lampert from Germany have stressed the need for raising awareness among Pakistani people about cancer.
Dr Zanon is a consultant radiologist and the author of more than 200 papers with special interest in breast cancer screening and diagnosis, whereas Dr Fritz Lampert is an internationally renowned consultant paediatric oncologist. Both these eminent doctors are currently working at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Lahore.
Both the doctors told that unfortunately patients in Pakistan tend to come to hospital at very last stages of cancer so in many cases doctors can not do much to save their lives. "A mass awareness campaign should be started through electronic and print media to make people aware about the types, stages and symptoms of the cancer," they added.
They also urged people to have regular medical checkup because certain types of prevalent cancers are easily diagnosed at early stages during simple physical examination. Early detection is one of the most important cancer-fighting tools as Dr Lampert stressed "it is important that cancer be detected as early as possible before it spreads."
Dr Zawow Eugewio said that in Italy they measured cancer in millimetres but in Pakistan the people who came to hospital with cancer, their tumours could easily be measured in centimetres. He said that he had never seen such large tumours before coming to Pakistan.