A major impediment in planning a cancer preventive work or down staging cancer in the country has been the shortage of appropriately trained human resource in medical, para-medical and technical disciplines. The medical education in the country focuses mainly on diagnosis and treatment protocols and preventive oncology is yet to find its roots in most places. Besides, there is a severe shortage of properly trained nurses and health workers in cancer care. CFI has thus developed several modules of short term, in-service training of clinicians, nurses, health worker and social workers in cancer prevention, screening and post-treatment and palliative care.

Cervical Cancer Screening Workshops in Northeast India

Cervical cancer is perhaps the only cancer which if detected in the pre-cancer stage and intervened properly, can be treated with success. But due to the lack of any major effort on public education and in absence of organized cervical screening programmes at the national level, the disease is generally detected at an advance stage in 70-95% cases in different centres, when curative treatment is not so successful. One of the major reasons, beside financial constraints, is the unavailability of trained manpower in the field of early detection and treatment of cervical cancer.

The main objective of these Workshops is to provide training in the Methods and Techniques of detecting early lesions of Cervical Cancer and its treatment to in-service clinicians drawn from District Hospitals and Medical Colleges in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and Darjeeling District of West Bengal.

Workshop 4 (2009)
Community-based Health Assessment & Workshop on Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening & Management in Meghalaya

 Collaborator: Department of Health & Family Welfare, Govt.  of Meghalaya

 Workshop Coordinators: Prof. Maqsood Siddiqi (CFI,  Kolkata) & Dr. A S Kynjing (Dept. of H & FW, Meghalaya)
 Supported by: Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India
 Participants:  Gynaecologists, Pathologists, Surgeons & Radiologists of Meghalaya state
 Date: 16-18 March, 2009
 Venue: Ganesh Das Hospital, Shillong

Workshop 3 (2007)
Community-based Health Assessment and Cervical Cancer Screening for women in Mizoram

 Collaborator: Department of Hospital & Medical Education, Govt. of Mizoram

 Workshop Coordinators: M Siddiqi (CFI) & D Barua     (Dept of H & M Education)
 Supported by: Department of Science & Technology,      Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India &      Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Ministry of      Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India .
 Participants:  Gynaecologists and Pathologists from all      Mizoram state
 Date: 5-7, November 2007
 Venue: Civil Hospital, Aizawl, Mizoram

Workshop 2 (2006)
Cervical Screening, Pathology and Management of Cervical Pre-cancer for North East India

 Collaborator: Dr. B Borooah Cancer Institute, Guwahati ,      Assam

 Workshop Coordinators: M Siddiqi (CFI) & Amal C      Kataki (BBCI)
 Supported by:  Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of     Science & Technology, Government of India
 Participants: Gynaecologists and Pathologists from      Assam and other Northeastern states
 Date: 27-29 April, 2006
 Venue: Dr. B Borooah Cancer Institute, Guwahati , Assam

Workshop1 (2005)
Cervical Cancer Prevention in North East India

 Collaborator: Sikkiim-Manipal Institute of Medical      Sciences, Gangtok , Sikkim

  Workshop Coordinators: M Siddiqi (CFI) & Amlan Gupta      (SMIMS)
  Supported by: Department of Science & Technology,      Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India
  Participants: Gynaecologists and Pathologists from all      Northeastern states
  Date: 26-28 May, 2005
 Venue: Sikkiim-Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences,       Gangtok, Sikkim

  
Title of Project
The Do’s and Don’ts of HPV Vaccine use in India

HPV Vaccines have been available in the Indian markets since its approval in September 2004. Considering the fact that it is the first ever vaccine developed to control Cervical cancer there are a several questions that people have before they can administer it on young women. It is this need to bust the myths about the vaccine that CFI has developed this booklet on FAQs for better understanding of the Vaccine and its implications.

 Target: General public
 Supported by: CFI
 Period: November 2009
 Authors: Prof. Maqsood Siddiqi & Dr. Swati Bhave
 Project status: Completed. Publication available.







Title of Project
Bengali Translation of “A Practical Manual on Visual Screening for Cervical Neoplasia” (by R.Sankaranarayanan and R.S.Wesley, IARC Technical Publication No. 41)

The objective of the project was to translate and publish “A Practical Manual on Visual Screening for Cervical Neoplasia” by R.Sankaranarayanan and R.S. Wesley (IARC Technical Publication No. 41) into the Bengali language. It is expected to help training of more field and health workers in cervical cancer screening programs among Bengali speaking populations in India and Bangladesh.

 Target population:  Health worker in Training      programmes

 Supported by:

International Agency for Research on     Cancer (WHO-IARC), Lyon, France
 Period: 2005-06
 Investigator: Maqsood Siddiqi & Sutapa Biswas
 Project status: Completed. Publication available.