KUWAIT: Chairman of the Board of the National Campaign for Cancer Awareness (CAN) Dr Khaled Al-Saleh said 1,262 dentists in Kuwait were trained on discovering oral cancers by the end of 2021 in cooperation with the dental department of the Ministry of Health.

This comes within the framework of continuing CAN’s efforts to spread cancer awareness, Saleh said in a press statement. As part of this campaign, specialized courses are held for doctors about the visual detection of oral tumors, he added.

He said the campaign seek the help of experienced specialists in this field, adding that CAN completed a specialized course for nurses. He further noted that the number of nurses who were trained was 2,116, adding that nurses are trained on communications skills with patients and their families.

Dr Saleh said oncologists prepared a program for trainees that includes cancer description, its stages, its occurrence in Kuwait, means of diagnosis, treatment, prevention, early detection and recovery percentages. He said it is important to train nurses because they are close to patients and their relatives, and they are trained on the correct information about cancerous diseases to enable them to answer questions correctly.

Thyroid Cancer

Meanwhile, Executive Committee Member at CAN Dr Iman Al-Shimmari said the world celebrates the thyroid cancer month in January of each year. She said that despite the pandemic’s circumstances “we still hold many activities, seminars, courses, and medical exhibitions in addition to scientific conferences.” Shimmari said although the thyroid cancer is more widespread, it has better recovery rate and less chances for it to spread in the body. Furthermore, it does not require chemotherapy, rather it is treated with radioactive iodine which does not cause hair loss or the known treatment side effects. She said the number of cancer cases according to the latest cancer statistics registered in Kuwait in 2016 was 2,873 of various cancers, 231 of them are thyroid.