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Background: Despite the advances in the field of oncology, the diagnosis of cancer is often considered a death sentence, owing to the misconceptions and myths about cancer treatment. Moreover, improvements in health literacy and awareness about cancer have also not been able to change the attitude of people toward cancer-related health behaviors. Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the knowledge, perception, and attitude of the general population toward cancer and cancer care. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Malabar Cancer Center, a tertiary cancer center in Kerala, India, between June 2017 and February 2018. A survey was conducted in the general population in the northern part of Kerala in the districts of Kannur, Kasargod, and Wayanad during a medical camp. People who were aged above 18 years and could read the Malayalam language were included in the study. The participants were administered a questionnaire comprising 26 questions, and the knowledge, perception, and attitude of the general population toward cancer and cancer care were evaluated. Results: A total of 487 people responded to the survey. Of these, 354 (72.7%) were women and 133 (27.3%) were men. The mean age of the cohort was 43.7 years. About 74% of the participants disagreed that all cancers can be treated using the same treatment modalities. A total of 84% of the participants agreed that cancer can be detected early with screening. Almost 95% of the participants were aware of the importance of cancer screening and strongly recommended establishing cancer screening clinics in government setups. Conclusion: There is a positive attitude among the general public toward cancer. Almost all the people surveyed were interested in attending cancer awareness programs, believed in the role of screening and felt that establishing cancer screening programs would be useful. This may help provide a road map for cancer policy-makers.

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BACKGROUND: Hospital-based blood centers in India adopt pre-donation testing for transfusion-transmitted infections (TTI) before plateletpheresis donations. However, the WHO emphasizes on TTI tests be performed on samples collected during the donation process. The study objective was to determine whether cost implications by adopting product testing along with predonation testing or only product testing strategy in platelet donation in Indian blood centers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional study on registered plateletpheresis donors, strategy-1 with predonation testing using rapid tests and product testing using chemiluminescence (CLIA) were compared with alternate models: Strategy-2 (predonation test using CLIA and product testing with rapid test) and strategy-3 (product testing). For strategy-1 and 2, donors wait for predonation test to complete or visit blood center twice, while strategy-3 donors donate plateletpheresis immediately. The cost implications of these strategies were compared among registered plateletpheresis donors. RESULTS: Out of 560 donors registered with strategy-1, three donors were reactive in predonation tests and six platelet units were discarded at product testing. After modeling, for strategy-2, nine donors would be identified as sero-reactive at pre-donation test only, while in strategy-3, nine units would be discarded in product testing. Only 506 donations were completed in strategy 1 after donor attrition. Recoverable costs was greater for strategy-3 (INR 5,146,500) than strategy-2 (INR 5,120,000) and strategy-1 (INR 5,069,000). CONCLUSION: Strategy-3 appears cost-effective but requires regulatory changes in the Indian setting. Testing apheresis procedures using Strategy 2 had greater cost recovery, and also prevents infectious donations and thereby enhances blood safety with the present guidelines.

Introduction: Lung is a major organ at risk during Post Mastectomy RadioTherapy (PMRT), because of the risk of Radiation Pneumonitis (RP). In countries like India 2D RT is widely used due to limited access to advanced technologies. We estimated the lung dose volumetrically in breast cancer patients treated with 2D tangential techniques, the incidence of acute RP and its association with lung dose. Methodology: Retrospective study of patients who underwent PMRT was done. The images with structure sets of cases planned using 2D technique were transferred to TPS and 3 D plans were generated. CLD, MLD, LL were measured from the 2D plan in the CT simulator. LDmean and V20 were measured from from DVH, in the TPS. Correlation between V20 and LDmean was done with CLD, MLD and LL. The incidence of radiation pneumonitis and its association with lung dose also was studied. Result: Total 50 patients were analyzed of which 3 patients had radiation pneumonitis. The mean CLD was 2.28 cm ± 0.54cm, MLD was 2.32 ± 0.6cm and LL was 12.52 ±2cm. V20 for two fields (MT+LT) was 17.04 ± 5.6 Gy and for three field (MT,LT and SCF) was 28.75 ± 8.6 Gy. Positive correlation was found between for V20 & LDmean and CLD, MLD & LL (p<0.05) 6% of patients developed Radiation pneumonitis but did not have association with V20 or MLD. Conclusion: Radiation pneumonitis is major concern after chest wall irradiation and the incidence is expected to be high with conventional technique where the volume is not accurately measured. It is still an option in countries like India with resource constraints by planning cautiously with the indicators of irradiated lung, like CLD and MLD within limits thus minimizing the incidence of radiation induced lung injury.