Although cancer is a global public health problem, maximum impact is on developing economies. In India, socio-cultural factors also operate to add the burden. Aim of the study was to delineate factors causing late presentation of cancers to the point of care.
Methods:
We gave cancerawareness classes to a village community, preceded by a campaign to attend the classes with the help of a local trustee organisation and primary health center. Data was collected from the attendees using a structured questionnaire prepared to dissect out the awareness about cancer symptoms and concerns about treatment.
Results:
Only 1.8% of the total population of the area under study attended the classes. Out of the 411 attendees, 323 (78.6%) responded to the questionnaire and of them, 294 (91%) identified the site wise symptoms of cancer clearly and 40 (12.4%) detected their own symptoms warranting cancer screening. Commonest concern was the cost of treatment (40.9%). There were people thinking that cancer is not a life-style disease (3.1%), it is genetic (7.7%), it may be due to fate alone (6.2%), it is contagious (5%), and it cannot be cured (3.7%).