About 2000 doctors practice Western medicine here. They are willing to work with Ayer-Vedic and Traditional Chinese medicine doctors. Cervical cancer is the number one malignancy, now closely followed by breast cancer. The diet is low fat, low in animal products, the women are thin and mostly malnourished. Like African women, they do not fit into Western established risk factors.
Late diagnosis is common here too.
They do have patient support groups and teach BSE techniques. There are social taboos, financial problems, expensive and long treatment with side effects and frequent travel to a cancer hospital that cause women to avoid disclosing their condition to family or others. Most are diagnosed at late stages. Very little has been done to increase awareness, although there are now some survivor groups. There is a shortage of prostheses in India and donations are welcome.