BENGALURU: Union Minister H N Ananth Kumar was first diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in June. He was initially treated at Sri Shankara Cancer Foundation in Basavanagudi where his wife Tejaswini is one of the trustees. But he did not show much improvement. Later, he was advised to go to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York which he did in September.
“He was there till October 20 for 20 days. He was given targeted therapy but it did not work. He decided to return to India. We gave him medicines at Shankara as well but his condition kept deteriorating. He was treated with a promising drug released recently in the US when the conventional ones did not work,” said Dr B S Srinath, Surgical Oncologist and Managing Trustee, Sri Shankara Cancer Foundation.
Targeted therapy is a cancer treatment that uses drugs and is different from traditional chemotherapy. It works by targeting specific genes or proteins to help stop cancer from growing and spreading. “During the state Assembly elections, Ananth Kumar seemed to have had the disease. He had cough but he thought it was due to extensively campaigning in dusty areas of north Karnataka,” Dr Srinath said.