PASIGHAT, 10 Aug: Forty adult females were screened for cervical cancer during a free cancer screening camp held at the first referral unit (FRU) CHC in Ruksin in East Siang district on Saturday.
The screening was part of a central government-ICMR task force project titled ‘A study on persistence of high risk HPV infection and its association with specific epigenetic markers and HLA Class-II gene polymorphism among adult females from Northeast India’, under Pasighat-based Baking Pertin General Hospital (BPGH) senior microbiologist Dr Basumoti Apum, the DIPRO informed in a release.
Ruksin FRU gynaecologist Dr James Modi led the screening camp, during which pap smears, urine and blood samples were collected to screen for high risk HPV infection, and to carry out HLA typing.
Necessary follow-up with the patients will be done as and when the test results are completed.
“The population-based cancer registry (PBCR) under the ICMR/NCDIR, Bengaluru, based in BPGH Pasighat, under Dr Kaling Jerang as the principal investigator, participated in the camp,” the DIPRO informed.
The data from PBCR Pasighat, which documents cancer burden and studies the trends of cancer in eastern Arunachal, show East Siang as being among the districts having the highest rate of cervical cancer in the country.
DMO Dr Komling Perme, BPGH Joint DHS Dr Talung Tali, Ruksin FRU i/c Dr Kadum Jonnom, among others, attended the inauguration programme, the release stated.
