KOCHI: The Covid-19 pandemic has gripped the world, forcing people to postpone timely treatments for other diseases including breast cancer, which is one of the main conditions causing death among women across the globe if left untreated. Breast cancer is curable if detected early and treated well.
Breast cancer has surpassed the incidence of cervix cancer in India. The scenario is worse in Kerala due to fast-changing lifestyle and food habits. It is unwise to delay treatment or diagnosis hoping that Covid vaccines will be available soon, and we have to live with Covid keeping it at bay. Cure from breast cancer is a reality through cosmetic cancer surgery, breast preservation, shortest admission time and cost reduction in treatments.
Myths vs facts
Waiting with cancer symptoms like swelling in the breast will invite the possibility of certain death. Covid-19 pandemic has forced even cancer centres to down their shutters. The fear psychosis spread by the medical fraternity, media, administration and police force further forced curable cancer patients to remain indoors. Several of the hypotheses put forward against doing cancer surgeries, radiation therapies and chemotherapies during the pandemic were proved wrong.
Even today, we lack evidence-based guidelines. The pandemic altered priorities in healthcare, social, economic and planning fronts and everything got centred around Covid. Unscientific travel restrictions were imposed on the people preventing the needy from seeking medical care. The prolonged waiting leads to operable breast cancers (curable to incurable) becoming inoperable.For that matter, non-communicable diseases( NCD) have been causing deaths in developing and developed countries many years before the pandemic started. We must understand that the death toll from corona is negligible compared to deaths from cancers.
Treatment under the new normal
Cancer can be treated and brought under control while following Covid protocol. Covid tests are done before treatments to protect the health care workers and patients from complications and to set correct time for surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.Crowding in hospitals for mammograms as a screening tool could be avoided and money can be saved through breast self- examination (BSE). The yield of BSE is considered almost equivalent to that of a mammogram.
Cost reduction of treatment is possible only if cancer is picked up early, and this can be done through BSE privately. In addition, when the cancer is detected early, the surgical procedures will be minimal, cost-effective with the possibility of organ preservation, cosmesis and beauty protection. The Frozen Section, a specific type of biopsy procedure that makes a rapid diagnosis of a mass during surgery, is done to make sure oncologic principles are respected. Hospital stay is limited to one day. There will not be any drains or tubes in spite of complete removal of axillary nodes through ‘Thomas Technique’ in breast oncoplasty.
run for a cause
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(The author is head of the Department of Oncology, Renai Medicity, Ernakulam)