Dr. Jehanzeb Riaz, an oncologist with Covenant Health says World Cancer day is important because of the awareness it creates.
”The way the field is changing we are making improvements,” said Dr. Riaz, “but there is a lot we can still do to improve the outcomes if you have cancer or in the first place to prevent cancer from happening.”
He says research never stops, an example of that is every year out of the medications the FDA approves, Dr. Riaz says more than 80% are related to cancer.
“In the world of pediatrics we have very good outcomes,” he said.
“We have done a very good job through the years of controlling them and now more than 90% of the kids who get Leukemia, they are actually cured, so they go on and live health lives.”
Technology also plays a big role in those outcomes.
“There are some cancers that we have screening programs available. So while the baby is still inside the mother we can check those kids for the mutations and take measures when they are born to prevent these cancers from happening,” said Dr. Riaz.
He says researchers are constantly exploring new areas of cancer.
“We are also making a lot of advancements in the immune therapy in which we give medicines to boost their immune response against cancers and the immune system fights the cancers and this things is all new which all started in the last decade.”
But according to Dr. Riaz there’s still a lot to learn.
“On a larger scale, getting a cure for all types you know its going to take some time, but you know, we are making some progress,” he said.
“I’m very happy with the research and the progress we are making so hopefully we will get there soon enough.”
