CANCER RATE IN ARMENIA DOUBLED OVER LAST TWO DECADES

YEREVAN, January 30. /ARKA/. Cancer rate in Armenia has doubled over
the last two decades, Professor Gagik Bazikyan, the deputy director
of Armenian National Oncology Center, said today at a news conference
in Novosti International Press Center.

He said that 3,500 to 4,000 people were diagnosed with cancer every
year in Armenia before 1990.

“In 2011 we registered 7,858 cancer patients and in 2012 we had 7,900
new cancer patients,” he said.

Bazikyan said that malignant tumors took 5,595 lives in 2011 and more
than 6,000 in 2012.

“Death rate is rising slower than diagnosed cancer rate, since all
the kinds of treatment, such as surgery, X-ray therapy and chemical
therapy, are used to save patients,” he said.

Bazikyan said that targeting chemical therapy is used more frequently
today.

“Today the government pays bills for chemical therapy, but can’t afford
to subsidize expensive medicaments,” he said adding that those cancer
patients who can afford medicaments which cost ~@2,000 to ~@3,000
buy them, and low-income people may rely on partial financing by the
government. -0-

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress