A mobile application that will enable people to estimate their cancer risk was launched in the city on Wednesday.
The app — named Karkinos — asks a set of questions, the response to which will determine the person’s risk category.
Someone who falls in the high-risk category will be contacted by the developers of the app for further action. The app can be downloaded from Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Surgical oncologist Gautam Mukhopadhyay welcomed the launch of the app because, he said, preventive oncology can result in early detection of the disease and faster treatment.
Often by the time symptoms of cancer manifest in a person, the disease has reached an advanced stage, said Mukhopadhyay.
“People’s knowledge about cancer and how to detect it at an early stage is very thin. Our aim is to spread that knowledge and make it very easy for people to know if they stand a risk of having cancer,” said R. Venkataraman, founder and chief executive officer of Karkinos Healthcare, which has developed the app.
“There are questions in the app which users have to answer. Based on their answers, an assessment will be made whether they are at risk of having cancer or not,” said Akhter Jawade, director, east, Karkinos Healthcare.
“The assessment will not come instantly but will take a day or two, during which the answers will be analysed,” said Jawade, an oncologist.
Some of the questions the app will ask are whether the user has an ulcer that has not healed for long and whether he or she suffers from bleeding from any part of the body.
“The questions have been framed to detect those at an elevated risk of having lung, breast, oral, cervical, colorectal and prostrate cancer,” Jawade said.
Some symptoms that may seem harmless to people without medical training could actually be indicators of cancer. Mukhopadhay gave a few examples.
Bleeding from the mouth can be an indicator of oral cancer and bleeding from the rectum can be a sign of colorectal cancer.
An ulcer that does not heal could be an indicator of cancer of that organ, he said.
Venkataraman said once someone is found to be at high risk, Karkinos will tell them about the tests that can help them detect whether they have cancer and also connect them with a hospital the company is partnering.
