Dr. Daniel Motola highlights the importance of raising awareness, as they are one of the few tumors that can be located in early stages.
The Cancer it is a condition that does not discriminate by sex or age. It represents the third cause of death due to disease in adult patients (the first are those second to hypertension and then secondary problems go to Mellitus diabetes), while in children it is less prevalent.
There are currently around 195 thousand new cases of Cancer in Mexico and there are around 90 thousand deaths annually from this condition, reports the doctor Daniel Motola Because.
According to the specialist in internal medicine, the risk factors in the Mexican population are: smoking and the obesity, which is becoming more and more important in our nation. This last health problem is increasingly associated with the presence of malignant tumors Y Mexico It is one of the nations with the highest index on the planet, so it is a factor to take into account.
Motola explains that in the future the obesity could exceed the tobacco consumption as the main risk factor, as it is more prevalent.
Simply, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) he pointed in 2020 that close to 73% of the Mexican population suffers obesity and of this percentage, 34% suffer obesity morbid.
“It is important to raise awareness about Cancer in the pandemic “
The national investigator level 1 of the CONACYT points out that deadliest cancers in Mexico are those of breast and colorectal for the women and that of prostate for men, but that it is important to make people aware of the care of this disease because all three are one of the few tumors that have a important early detection scheme.
“We know that in Cancer breast, you have to do studies from the age of 40, in Cancer colon in men and women from 50 and prostate from 45. This has shown a decrease in death secondary to tumors “, mentions the doctor Motola.
The most important thing, he adds, is to take into account two things: first the early detection and second the reduction of risk factors as the obesity and the smokinghe points out.
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Cancer colon: a type of Cancer very common not to be overlooked
At Cancer colorectal usually you can see bloody stools or a intestinal obstruction, diarrhea, constipation The difficulty evacuating.
“It could be one of the main symptoms of Cancer colorectal. Any different signs or signals that people notice when evacuating, and more if they are people over 50, it is worth going to review for how common this type of tumor is, “suggests the doctor Motola, who indicates that men and women can go to an internist, a gastroenterologist or an oncologist to be checked.
If detected premalignant lesions before they become one carcinogenic lesionThis has an important impact on the survival of patients, he highlights.
“In Mexico, colorectal cancer is a disease that seriously affects the population; this disease ranks third in incidence and second in mortality”
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Why is early detection important?
Motola Because indicates that when early detection of Cancer of Mother o de colon, at the population level, the death or mortality caused by tumors due to this type of conditions is impacted.
“If you detect a tumor in early stages where you can do a multidisciplinary treatment with surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or whatever the particular patients require, these people can be cured. On the other hand, if it is detected at a late stage, when the affected person already has a problem in different organs of the body or when aggressive treatment can no longer be done, then it becomes a condition with no cure potential, where the intention is already to give a control treatment “, warns the doctor.
In these cases, he adds, the quality of life of individuals can be impacted with the treatments that are available.
“Non-small cell lung cancer is preventable in 80% of cases, but if it occurs, diagnosing it in an accurate and timely manner is key to achieving a relevant survival derived from effective treatments”
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The impact of the pandemic on Cancer:
What has been seen in the health emergency is that the patient who comes to seek medical advice is delayed, highlights the doctor Motola.
Before the arrival of the coronavirus, the specialist reveals, people had a symptom and went to the doctor, but now they have signs and delay their consultation for fear of contagion.
“Another problem is that the diagnosis that is being made is taking longer than usual because usually for an accurate determination a biopsy and this is running late. There is a saturation that has not allowed the necessary procedures for the early care of patients and these people arrive in slightly more advanced stages of the disease. This impacts “, warns.
Why do people have to take care of their bones when receiving care for Cancer?
In the words of the specialist, despite the fact that there are no problems as such of metastasis in the bones until the tumor has already traveled through the blood and was deposited in one of them, this bone affected by the condition has great fragility and the risk of that it hurts or breaks is very high.
“If the fracture is in a finger there is not much problem, but there may be fractures in the spine and that really brings a very important health problem in patients with an alteration, for example, in their mobility or sensitivity. When we have a problem of bone metastases, what we want is to give drugs that help us significantly reduce the risk of a catastrophic event, “explains the doctor. Motola.
“You have to take care of your bone health when you receive cancer treatments. Today there are very good medications that help that bone that is fragile to be repaired”: Daniel Motola
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What are the latest drugs against Cancer?
The doctor Motola reports that in the last seven years many healthcare tools have been incorporated into targeted treatments where you look for pathology and biopsy in which the diagnosis of Cancer and it is analyzed to find genetic alterations.
“If you have these alterations, we have some drugs that are directed towards these modifications. That in recent years has shown a very important benefit unlike what was had 10 or 15 years ago in terms of quality of life and survival of the patients, “he highlights.
There are also the personalized treatments and the biomarker tests.
The personalized medicine, says the expert, is a individualized treatment for each of the patients that depends on several factors:
+ Physical factors: age, conditions, history of illness and if there is anything that prevents the administration of any medication such as allergies.
+ Genetic characteristics of the tumor: “We send a part of the tumor to a genetic analysis to see what characteristics it has and with that to be able to give more individualized treatments to each person,” he details Motola.
In the case of biomarker tests, there are some tumors that require the uptake of substances in cells that are produced or present in response to the Cancer and that are known as biomarkers.
“It allows us to see whether or not that cell is going to respond to a targeted treatment. Today, in many tumors such as Cancer lung, colon, mama or the gastric, We need to have tumor genetic information to give a very individualized treatment. Depending on what biomarcador look at the different tumorsIt is the treatment that we are going to give them, “he concludes.
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