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A total of 1,137 patients have received treatments so far, for various types of cancer from the Cancer Institute of Guyana (CIG), located in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) compound.
Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by out-of-control cell growth. There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Each is classified by the type of cell that is initially affected.
Cancer Institute of Guyana
Cancer harms the body when damaged cells divide uncontrollably to form lumps or masses of tissues called tumors (except in the case of leukemia where cancer prohibits normal blood function by abnormal cell division in the blood stream.)
In Guyana, the most common types of cancer are cervical, breast, leukemia, prostate and colorectal cancer. This is according to the radiation oncologist, Dr. Narendra Bhalla.
Dr. Bhalla was brought to Guyana from Chicago under the sponsorship of Global Imaging Service, a sister company of CIG, to start the clinic, to evaluate and to select patients for radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment.
Global Imaging Service/CIG is a private institute and a project of the Ministry of Health/GPHC. It was inaugurated in June 2006.
Global Imaging Service, which is located in St Joseph Mercy Hospital, Kingston offers MRI, CT Scans and Ultrasounds while CIG offers Oncology Consultations, mammography, Pap Smears, Chest X-Rays, Chemotherapy, External Beam Radiation Therapy, Intra Cavity Radiation Therapy, CT Scans and Bone Density Scans.
At CIG, a Linear Accelerator machine is available to provide radiation therapy for patients who are diagnosed with cancer.
According to Dr. Bhalla, cancer is a growing medical problem in Guyana and the number of persons who seek treatment continues to grow each month. The most common types of cancers being treated at CIG are cervical, prostate and breast cancer.
The Radiation Oncologist stated that brain tumor and lung cancer are the most serious types of cancer while breast and prostate cancer are actually the ?good type if they are caught at an early stage.?
He said that patients visit the institute when the cancer is at various stages. ?Some come at stage four and when it is at that stage, the survival level is less and the treatment is also less. Those patients suffer the most while the patients who come at an early stage are doing well.?
Dr. Bhalla said that once a patient has been diagnosed with cancer and undergoes surgery, he or she is supposed to have regular check-ups up to five years.
?Cancer can come back so we have to keep regular check-ups. After five years we can say it is cured,? Dr. Bhalla noted.
When asked about some of the challenges he encountered with patients coming from GPHC, he said the hospital process is too slow. ?If I need blood transfusion the process can take two weeks when it should take only one day privately. The doctors? report takes three to four weeks when it is supposed to take only one week.?
Other than that, he said the institute is doing good and giving its ?all? to patients. It is advised that women who are sexually active or are 18 years and older should have annual pap smears and pelvic examinations.
All females over 40 years of age should have an annual mammography for breast cancer. (Romila Boodram)
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