Cancer. There is a finality in that word that has made it among the world's most dreaded afflictions.In the West, modern medicine has tried year after year to overwhelm the cancer cell with brute force, slicing it out with surgery, zapping it with radiation or poisoning it with chemotherapy. But it remains among the top killers there - especially breast cancer for women. Now the disease is poised to strike in India in a big way. Statistics show breast cancer is rapidly replacing cervical cancer as the most common cancer to afflict urban Indian women. Cervical cancer is a developing world's malaise, caused mainly by unhygienic conditions and infections. Ironically modernisation has brought about its own set of diseases. Doctors say that the personal choices women make in everyday life - like marrying late, having fewer children, that too relatively later in life, and breast feeding only for a few months before returning to their careers - leave them susceptible to breast cancer.Earlier, the onset of this disease spelt a nightmare of pain, disfigurement and uncertainty too terrifying to contemplate. A seemingly healthy woman with a small lump in her breast could have a biopsy performed and not know whether she would die within six months. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}But thankfully much has changed today. Breast cancer is curable if detected early and doctors now employ surgical methods that are minimally invasive and cause little trauma. As Principal Correspondent Farah Baria, who wrote the story, puts it, "What women have to do is inculcate a mindset of prevention." Weed out the cancer before it is too late.That is a lesson that should have been applied to the cancer of Veerappan too. The other major story in this issue deals with Dr Rajkumar's release and how the Supreme Court's firm stand facilitated this. The apex court rightly pointed out that the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu let Veerappan grow into a monster instead of arresting him earlier. The moral in both stories: act now or pay later.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 27, 2000--- ENDS ---
