Parents deny girls cancer treatment, say doctors

Parents deny girls cancer treatment, say doctors

Sneha, 8, was brought to a city hospital with cancer of the eye. But when doctors told the girl's parents that they may have to remove her eye to save her life, the family went absconding. Oncologists say some parents do this out of confusion and fear, while some others never bring girls to doctors. The result: More girls than boys with cancer are denied treatment.

This, despite clinical evidence that shows biologically girls respond better than boys to cancer therapy and that 75% of all cancers in children can be cured. At all cancer centers in the country, the number of girls being brought for treatment is lower than the number of boys, said experts who gathered at PHOCON 2014, a pediatric oncology summit in the city.

Dr Revathi Raj, consultant pediatric hematologist, at Apollo Specialty Hospital said the incidence of cancer among boys is high (1.4 : 1), but of those girls affected by cancer, only 40% are brought in for treatment. "For every two girls, there are three boys diagnosed with cancer, but out of 10 cases, only three girls are brought to the hospital. Even in many cases of girls being diagnosed, parents see it as a death knell and abandon treatment abruptly," she said. In rural areas, parents with many children gave preference to boys when it came to giving cancer treatment. "Parents do not understand that biologically, girls respond better to cancer treatment than boys," she added.

Dr Shripad D Banavali, head of the department of paediatric oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital concurred. "Even if 95% of the cases are treatable, people hesitate to hospitalise their daughters the moment the consequences of the surgery are explained to them. They think infertility due to chemotherapy or their child losing an eye or a kidney does not make her marriage material," said Dr Banavali. "Girls deserve as much a chance to be treated as the boys."

Cancer Institute chairperson Dr V Shanta expressed concern over underreporting of cancer among children, especially in rural areas. "It is a crime to deny a child of cancer treatment. Childhood cancers form 2.3% of all cancers. While the numbers are high in metropolitan cities, reporting cancer cases in children is abysmal in rural areas," she said.

The veteran cancer expert said children were mostly affected by blood cancer and brain tumours. The annual childhood cancer burden in India is 23,658, out of which 6,209 are cases of leukemia. Tamil Nadu reported 1,290 cases of cancer in children last year, of which 363 were cases of leukemia. "Advances in oncology over the past six decades have ensured that up to 75 % of all paediatric cancers can be cured. While it is possible to treat all pediatric cases in the country, there is a need to increase affordability and accessibility for the same," she said.