In a positive development, the doctors at the associated hospital of the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) here have started giving chemotherapy to the cancer patients. On Wednesday, chemotherapy of a female patient was done for the first time in the biggest government hospital of the State.
The Principal Medical Superintendent (PMS) of the hospital, Dr KK Tamta, told ‘The Pioneer’ that a 51-year-old female patient, Godawari Devi, a resident of Chamoli district, has been diagnosed with cancer of pancreas. He said that surgery was ruled out for the patient and chemotherapy was advised.
On Wednesday, a team of doctors led by CMS Dr Tamta who himself is a surgeon, administered chemotherapy on the patient. The team included oncologist Dr Navneet Jain, surgeon Dr Vipul Kandwal and Dr Vinamra Mittal. Dr Tamta said that six dozes of chemotherapy would be administered on the patient in next 21 days. He said that the hospital administration is planning to start radiotherapy also in the associated hospital soon.
Cancer is primarily treated with medicines, surgical procedures and radiations. The aim of all these methods is prevent the spread of cancer cells.
The treatment by medicines is called Chemotherapy while the process of killing the cancer cells by means of radiations comes under Radiotherapy. In the surgical process the cancerous part is removed from the body.
It is pertinent to mention here that the associated hospital being part of a medical college would have to develop itself into a full fledged cancer unit for the patients.
The initiation of Chemotherapy at the hospital is good news for the patients of cancer. As of now the cancer patients of Uttarakhand have to go to the private hospitals like HIHT Jollygrant and Max hospital where cost of treatment is higher.
Though there is no specific data of number of cancer patients in Uttarakhand the medical experts opine that the number of such patients is increasing in the state