On the occasion of World Health Day, oncologists at Apollo Gleneagles Cancer Hospitals (AGCH) in the city stepped forward to bust myths surrounding cancer and its treatment.

Speaking at a cancer survivors’ meet, Dr Shaikat Gupta, Director of Surgical Oncology, AGCH and Dr. Soumya Bhattacharya, Haemato-Oncologist, AGHC discussed about how survival rates have improved with major technological advancements seen in cancer care over the years. Dr Gupta, Director Surgical Oncology, AGHC said, “India has seen major advancements in oncosurgery  techniques like conservative and bloodless surgery, robotic surgery and CRS + HIPEC as well as new technology adaptions in medical oncology like Monoclonal Antibodies (MABs), targeted therapy and gene therapy.

New technologies like advanced linear accelerators, proton therapy and cyberknife are set to transform cancer treatment in the country”. He further added, “But more importantly, the public still has lot of misconceptions about cancer and it is imperative that we make them aware about it. “ Some common myths that people believe are: Cancer is infectious, chemotherapy is poison, biopsy and surgery spreads cancer, grade in a biopsy report means the stage of cancer.

The cancer treatments available at AGCH include medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, haemato oncology, pediatric-oncology, palliative care, and advanced diagnostics. Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a highly concentrated, heated chemotherapy treatment that is delivered directly to the abdomen during surgery. Unlike systemic chemotherapy delivery, which circulates throughout the body, HIPEC delivers chemotherapy directly to cancer cells in the abdomen. AGHC is the first Centre in Eastern India to start this new treatment.

In Genetic profiling, the gene mutations of the cancerous cells are checked to predict whether the patient can respond to a particular drug or not. The genes of the patient help in judging the effectiveness of a method of appropriate cancer treatment. Dr. Soumya Bhattacharya, Haemato Oncologist, AGCH observed, “In recent years there has been a vast improvement in the treatment outcomes of haematological cancers. In fact it is nothing short of a revolution what modern chemotherapy, targeted drugs, bone marrow transplants have been able to achieve."

"Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia now has 80-90 per cent success rates where we have seen children upto 10 years of age go and stay in remission. Chronic myeloid leukaemia is almost as easy as treating diabetes or high blood pressure," he said. "There is a 70-80 per cent success rate in Hodgkin’s lymphoma especially in young patients and 60-70 per cent success in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For Multiple myeloma and Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, new effective treatments and wonder drugs are available. So we would urge the public at large to not ignore any signs and symptoms of cancer and consult the doctors without any fear,”Dr Bhattacharya added.