Last March, when Iraqi national Basma Ali Sultan, 47, was diagnosed with breast cancer, her biggest concern was that she would lose her left breast to the life-saving surgery, mastectomy. After Iraqi doctors said that her breast could not be saved, last month she landed up at Fortis Hospital in Mulund. On January 5, Basma, was discharged after undergoing a rare procedure, nipple sparing mastectomy, wherein doctors were able to save the nipple, areola and reconstruct the breast.

Basma had been struggling with the breast cancer and persistent pain in her left breast for the last one year. “When I consulted the doctors in Iraq, they told me that I had no option but to remove my breast. It was a depressing period,” said Basma.

Desperate to seek other options, she flew down to India in November on a friend’s advice and contacted Dr Anil Heroor, cancer surgeon at Fortis Hospital. Basma’s examination revealed that she had multi-centric tumours in her left breast and it would not be possible to save the entire breast by doing conventional breast conservation cancer surgery. However, she was a perfect candidate for nipple sparing mastectomy, which deals with tumours which are spread all over the breast, said Dr Heroor.

According to doctors, in some patients the complex procedure even helps retain sensation. “With this technique, the appearance of breasts is preserved. It has helped in giving the patients a better body image and confidence. This procedure can be done only in select patients,” said Dr Heroor.

Doctors are seeing more and more patients opting for breast conservation techniques, as the survival rates have increased over the years. “We are identifying increasing number of young patients with breast cancer who can benefit from breast conservation techniques,” said Dr Heroor.

source: Hindustantimes.com

Forty-year-old Dayanand Yadav is the only male patient at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ (AIIMS) breast cancer clinic.Yadav had never imagined he could suffer from what is usually seen to be a woman’s disease.

And, coming to terms with it, is proving to be more difficult, than the actual operation.

“I felt a swelling, which was increasing. I ignored it earlier, but four to five months later, I began convulsing in pain. When I showed it to the doctor, he told me that it was breast cancer and I must get it operated immediately,” says Yadav.

Breast cancer affects one man out of every one hundred cases in women. Lack of awareness means detection is usually late for men.And, the cancer can spread quickly because of their small breast size. Many men never seek treatment.

ccording to Dr MK Mishra, a surgeon at AIIMS, most of the patients suffering from breast cancer, come to hospital when the disease is at an advanced stage.

“Seventy percent of our patients come in an advanced stage of the disease where we have to use a lot of resources, the patient suffers much more because of the treatment, it is aggressive and side effects are there. And still we don’t get the outcome we wish,” Dr Mishra said.

If detected early, the survival rate for people with breast cancer is high. But it is the number two cause of death among Indian women, after cervical cancer.Nearly 1,00,000 women are diagnosed with cancer every year.The real figurecould be much higher, as many women are not comfortable approaching doctors for diagnosis.

Breast Cancer has been and continues to be the commonest cancer among urban Indian women, according to Indian Council for Medical Research statistics. In a paper “50 years of Cancer Control in India” in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website, Chaudhry and Luthra say cervical cancer is the commonest cancer among women, followed by breast cancer.

Population-based survival studies showed the five-year relative survival for breast cancer was 46.8 per cent in Bangalore, 49.5 per cent in Chennai and 55.1 per cent in Mumbai. What oncologists stress repeatedly is that cancer, especially of the breast, if detected early is curable. However, late reportage continues to impact on the mortality and morbidity of several women with breast cancer.

FBCP is a non-governmental organisation focused on spreading breast cancer awareness. Medical professionals from institutes and hospitals like AIIMS, Gangaram Hospital, and Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute joined together to start FBCP in 2001.

source: Dnaindia.com

Iraq-based Maha Muhammad had lost all hope for life when she was diagnosed with blood cancer at the age of 20. But she got a new lease of life after undergoing a bone marrow surgery in the capital.

In June 2010, Maha’s parents approached Delhi-based Fortis Hospital, to treat their young daughter. She was successfully treated through a unique bone marrow transplant.

Bone marrow, a tissue that produces blood cells in the body, needs to be replaced in case of chemotherapy failure. Stem cells from a donor are cultured and transferred to the recipient’s body in the form of new bone marrow.

The success rate of such transplants are slim, believe experts.

‘In Maha’s case, we were able to retrieve bone marrow cells from her brother because of a matching donor blood group. The transplant was successful because of that,’ said Rakesh Ojha, head of department of bone marrow transplant at Fortis International Oncology Centre.

Around 1,000 patients require bone marrow transplants every year in India, of whom only 200 are able to receive it. There are only around 20 such transplant centres across the country

source: Sify News