(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) A three-day UAE Cancer Congress 2017, held earlier in the month, has seen some of the world's top experts share the latest updates and knowledge in cancer management.
The congress, in its ninth year, focused on 'promoting excellence in oncology' with over 13 different oncology sub-specialties including head and neck cancer.
Khaleej Times caught up with Dr Anil K D'cruz, director at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, and professor and surgeon at the department of head and neck surgery, on the sidelines of the congress to find out more about his fight against a killer disease that, in his words, "affects almost one-third of India's cancer patients today."
Excerpts from an interview with one of the leading surgical oncologists in India.
How prevalent is head and neck cancer and yet why is it not heard of so much?
Dr Anil K D'cruz: Head and neck cancer is primarily caused by tobacco and alcohol. In India, people chew tobacco; smoke tobacco in the form of beedi, so we see a large incidence of head and neck cancer as opposed to the West where it may be just five per cent of the cases. There is awareness but more needs to be done.
So what exactly is head and neck cancer?
Head and neck is everything above the collarbone, excluding the brain. Then there are cancers of the thyroid, which is increasing globally at an alarming rate. You have cancers of the salivary glands and rarer tumours like para pharyngeal space tumours, nerve sheath tumours, sarcomas, cancer in the ears affecting the temporal bone - but are rare.
You are one of India's leading surgical oncologists. How would you rate the country's quality of treatment vis-a-vis the west?
The treatment in India is at par with anywhere else in the world. In fact, given our numbers, there are far more experienced surgeons in India than in the West but unfortunately that kind of quality is not accessible to all, given our large population. That's why there may be a general feeling that treatment in India may not be good but that's not true.
Come to the Tata Memorial, we have equipment that compares with the best in the world. We are now investing in a proton delivery system for radiotherapy. The proton costs about Rs2.5 billion (Dh140 million) and the government of India funds it. There are 35 proton machines worldwide; two of them will be in India.
How big has been your role in taking Tata Memorial and India this far?
At the Tata Memorial, some of the researches we do is very cutting edge. For example, a research we did on oral cancers was chosen as a plenary at American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco), the largest cancer meeting in the world that attracts 35,000 to 40,000 attendees and 20-30,000 online viewers. The research that I led got a very rare and prestigious plenary spot in Asco and the icing on the cake was when it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
I managed to create a 'culture of head and neck youngsters' across the country as well as among people who work in the hospital. We have a very vibrant association called the Foundation of Head and Neck Oncology of India. I have expanded that to Asia where I was the president of the Asian society of head and neck oncology. In addition, we train a lot of manpower who then go on to lead the charge at various cancer hospitals across the country.
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