Prevention is still the best defense against cancer, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said as it joined the observance of the National Cancer Consciousness Week this third week of January.
Aside from prevention, the CHR said there are other ways to beat cancer such as maintaining a healthy lifestyle by exercising and eating nutritious food.
"Mahalaga rin ang regular at maagang pagpapa-check up nang maagapan ang cancer o ano pa mang karamdaman, (Regular and early check-ups are also important to prevent cancer or any other illness)," it stressed.
The National Cancer Consciousness Week is observed to create awareness for the prevention and early detection and treatment of disease.
“Raising awareness against cancer is as important as ever since cancer cases have seen an increase over the past years even as the world's health focus shifted to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic,” the CHR said.
Based on data obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO), the commission said there were 153,751 new cancer cases in the Philippines in 2020. The number was higher than the 141,021 cases reported by the WHO in 2018, it noted.