NEW DELHI: Doctors at Sir Gangaram Hospital successfully operated on a cancer patient by removing a 5 kilo tumour using a special downstream therapy. During the surgery, the doctors took out the 62 cm long tumour that was first reduced to 42 cm and then weaned out.
According to the doctor Ushast Dhir, Consultant in the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplantation at the hospital, his team decided to first shrink the tumour using special downstream therapy as there was a huge risk of the entire stomach getting ruptured or coming out, which could have made it difficult for him to eat, and even turn fatal.
“The 45-year-old patient from Delhi had come to us in July last year with abdominal pain. He was unable to eat anything and his stomach felt full all the time. After several tests it was concluded that he has a massive tumour in his stomach. The tumour was reaching to the large intestines, spleen, diaphragm, and a part of the liver,” explained Dr Dhir in detail.
Dr Dhir added that the tumour had grown so huge that it had displaced his intestines to the left side of his body. The patient was then administered the right medication to shrink the cancer. “We followed special downstream therapy, known as sandwich therapy, and kept him under observation. When the tumour reduced to 42 cm, we decided to perform the surgery,” said Dr Dhir.
Sandwich therapy is adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy in the “sandwich” method for high risk endometrial cancer. It has been described as consisting of initial chemotherapy of limited duration, followed by radiotherapy, and then subsequent consolidation chemotherapy again. The patient stayed for the surgery and was released from the hospital after five days after showing signs of recovery.