Cancer is a dreaded disease. However, it is also one of the least understood diseases, and people have many misconceptions around it. There are a number of things about cancer the general population is not aware about. We speak to Dr.Bhavesh Parekh, Head of Shalby Cancer & Research Institute (SCRI) Ahmedabad about this. Dr. Parekh has an experience of over 25 years as a cancer specialist and he has treated a large number of patients successfully through his career.
Q. Does cancer have any relationship with age?
A. Yes, age is the biggest risk factor for cancer. About 7 in 10 cancers occur in people over 60 years. Today’s world is a world of geriatric population, and old people are more likely to have cancer than young people. More common cancers in old population is prostate cancer in males and breast cancer in females. Thus, it is advisable that people over 60 should get screened for cancer regularly. This makes early detection possible.
Q. What are the other risk factors for cancer?
A. Other risk factors for cancer are lifestyle factors and hereditary factors. Smoking, consuming tobacco, consuming alcohol, and obesity are some of the major lifestyle factors. However, I must also add that it is not true that people who do not consume tobacco in any form or alcohol or are not obese can not have cancer. Certain cancers can be hereditary. For eg breast cancer. If a woman’s mother or grandmother or any first degree relative has had breast cancer she is at a much greater risk to have breast cancer. It is thus advisable that such women should get screened for breast cancer every year after the age of 45. Let me tell you, early detection has a very crucial role to play in successful treatment of cancer.
Q. Many people think all cancers need surgery. How true is that?
No it is not true at all. For eg if someone has a cancer of voice box it is not true that his voice box will need to be removed completely. With the help of chemo and radiotherapy together we are able to preserve organ whilst making the patient cancer-free. In many cases all three therapies chemo, radiation and minimally invasive surgery are used to preserve organ. For eg young women might be afraid that the whole breast would need to be removed. But this is not true. We preserve the organ and are curing the cancer. Plastic surgeon is also part of the cancer surgery in many cases. Along with that head and neck cancer surgeon prevents disfigurement of face.
Q. People who have been advised to go under chemotherapy are very afraid as they have heard there are very bad side effects of chemotherapy. Please tell us something about this.
Now chemotherapy that uses drug as targeted therapy, immunotherapy and hormonal therapy in which there are no or minimal side effects like hair loss and nausea. Also, this gives better results than chemotherapy.
Q. Please tell us about a challenging case you have treated at Shalby.
A. There are a number of challenging cases we have treated successfully at Shalby. A stage 4 breast cancer patient from Kenya was treated without any dose of chemotherapy. She was cured with just tablets using targeted therapy. One Indian patient in stage 4 breast cancer was cured without chemotherapy as well as without any surgery. Both are living cancer-free life today. I must also mention that there is a huge difference in the cancer treatment cost in countries like USA and UK and India. In many cases the cost of treatment in India is as little as 5% than in these countries.
Q. At Shalby you get a number of patients from overseas. Please tell us about that.
A. We get lot of patients from overseas for cancer treatment. We have all diagnostic facilties as well as all treatment modalities including chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiation as well as surgery including minimally invasive surgery at Shalby. There is a big team of cancer experts who work as a team for each case and decide the best course of treatment. We also have the latest radio surgery wherein surgery is performed without any incision. This is very useful for brain tumour and other cancers where the tumour is difficult to access. We also have genetic testing for hereditary cancer. All of this is supported by our multispecialty team of doctors and allied staff like clinical psychologists for counselling and dieticians. I must also mention that there is a huge difference in the cancer treatment cost in countries like USA and UK and India. In many cases the cost of treatment in India is as little as 5% than in these countries.