SRINAGAR: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday sought PET scan facility at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar.

“That would help in early detection of cancer and save lives,” said DAK President Dr. Nisar ul Hassan.

“When a cancer is detected at an early stage, the chances of survival are dramatically higher than when detected at a later stage when the tumor has spread and the disease is advanced,” he said.

Dr. Hassan said positron emission tomography (PET) scan has since decades played an instrumental role in the fight against cancer through an early and better diagnosis of the disease.

“PET scan can check whether cancer has spread,” he said adding “It can assess the effectiveness of cancer treatment and find out whether cancer has come back after treatment.”

The DAK President said we have one PET scan at SKIMS hospital, but it is not able to cope with a huge burden of cancer cases in the valley.

“Patients have to wait for months for PET scans which adversely affects patient outcome,” he said.

 Dr. Nisar said GMC Srinagar and its associated hospitals cater to a large number of cancer patients and in absence of PET scans it is hard for doctors to diagnose, treat and manage cancer cases.

 “Cancer has reached epidemic proportions in Jammu and Kashmir.

As per the union health ministry figures, JK has reported an estimated 51,577 cancer cases in the last four years.

More than 22,000 people have died due to cancer during the period of 2018 to 2021,” he said. (CNS)