Center Dharma Wanita Universitas Brawijaya (UB) held a Health Seminar: Recognizing and Beware of ‘Malignancy’ Diseases in the Auditorium Building of Faculty of Medicine UB, Tuesday (10/1/2023).
The Chairperson of Dharma Wanita, Rani Ulfa Widodo in his remarks thanked the guest speaker for providing knowledge regarding the prevention of degenerative diseases, such as cancer.
Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Brawijaya, Dr.dr. Shinta Oktya Wardhani, Sp.PD-KHOM explained the importance of understanding and recognizing degenerative diseases and its prevention efforts.
Shinta explained that based on Globocan, a survey of health data in Indonesia, breast cancer was ranked first followed by neck cancer as the most common cancer in women, and lung cancer and prostate cancer in men in Indonesia.
“Symptoms of this disease include loss of appetite, voice becomes hoarse accompanied by coughing with a long frequency, weight loss with an unclear cause, coughing up blood or brownish color like the color of rubber, shortness of breath or complaints in the chest, bronchitis or pneumonia that doesn’t heal,” said dr. Shinta.
She added that lung cancer usually affects men who have risk factors such as smokers, age over 50 years, genetic factors, carcinogen factors (frequent contact with chemicals or radiation), viruses, hormone use, behavior and lifestyle.
Prostate cancer usually affects men with risk factors over 50 years of age, people who like instant food and preservatives, genetic factors, genetic mutations, and an unhealthy lifestyle.
“Degenerative diseases such as malignant cancer appear due to the development of the times due to an unhealthy lifestyle,” she said.
Therefore, according to her, people need to anticipate the arrival of the disease by screening or early detection.
“Screening is an examination that is carried out before there are complaints or symptoms (usually carried out by groups of people who are over 50 years old), while early detection is an examination that is carried out after experiencing certain complaints or symptoms (usually in this condition the size of the cancer is more than 1 cm),” she said.
Screening is usually done in groups that are already at risk by means of chest x-rays to assess the condition of the heart, lungs, respiratory tract, blood vessels, and the bone structure in them. In patients with lung cancer, lumps or nodules are usually found in the lungs. The next method that must be done is a psychological examination of the sputum to find out whether there are cells that lead to cancer or not.
“Meanwhile, early detection is carried out after symptoms appear with a chest CT scan to find out whether there are signs that point to cancer,” said dr. Shinta. [TRS/Humas UB/ Trans. Iir]
