Later this year Toronto in Canada will gear up to host a film festival of a markedly different character. Now, before you are misled by the title, Breast Fest will be the first ever to promote awareness about the growth in incidence of breast cancer.
It is said a million women worldwide are diagnosed with the disease each year. It is the most common cancer in women.
This festival, the idea for which came from the charity Rethink Breast Cancer, will include feature-length and short films, documentaries, animation and experimental works that highlight breast cancer.
In a rather neat touch, submissions are being invited through YouTube and will be judged by online viewers. They will remain as an accessible public resource after the fest concludes. It is hoped this will "enable people to share their experiences with breast cancer from their perspective from within their country and their unique experience".
Recent research by the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre in the UK revealed that "one in seven women will develop breast cancer by 2024, if present health trends continue".
The researchers claim that the risk to women who carry gene mutations which can lead to the disease has increased dramatically in the last 60 years. It is said that one in 10 women in the UK currently develops breast cancer by age 80.
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A study in Chennai by a similar organisation suggests that, in the last two decades, "the incidence of breast cancer in the city has risen by 200 per cent".
Using data from the Madras Metropolitan Cancer Tumour Registry, the Adyar Cancer Institute says "the risk of cervical cancer in educated, elite women had dropped but breast cancer incidence had zoomed".
The study, which covered 250 women with breast cancer and 500 healthy women, was initiated after it was found that the number of breast cancer cases exceeded those of cervical cancer in 2003. (A footnote reveals that in rural areas the incidence is 50 times lower.)
The pharmaceutical industry is gearing up for what could be some very big business. The French research consultancy IMS has said that spending on cancer drugs in India, Mexico and Turkey will grow 12 per cent annually over the next 15 years, compared with single-digit growth for more developed nations.
Currently the oncology market in India is pegged at roughly Rs 900 crore. It is expected to reach Rs 3,350 crore by 2012.
