An inoperable cancerous tumour was recently reduced in size to make it operable with treatment involving simultaneous administration of chemotherapy and radiation. Finally, the surgery to remove the growth was performed at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata. Later, when the patient developed pneumonia after returning home, the critical care team at Apollo once again took charge and cured him with skilful intervention.
Prabir Kumar Basu, 66, said he was indebted to Apollo Hospitals doctors for finding a quick solution to every new challenge that his condition threw up for them and for coming out triumphant each time. “If I’m sitting here and speaking today, it’s because of the expertise of the doctors and the caring nurses at Apollo,” Basu added.
The tumour board members at Apollo — a multi-disciplinary consortium of medical, surgical and radiation oncology, along with interventional radiology, pathology, pain and palliative care — which meets for complex cases, decided when the tumour in Basu’s rectum was found inoperable that they would give something called concomitant chemotherapy and radiation therapy (CTRT) together. This works as the chemotherapy sensitizes the cancerous cells and makes the radiation administered immediately afterwards work better.
“Our mode of treatment worked and the tumour size diminished, enabling the surgeon to perform the surgery to remove it completely. This is the benefit of having a multi-disciplinary approach towards treatment,” said Dr Mohapatra.
While Dr Mohapatra was the medical oncologist, the other doctors who took care of the patient until this phase were radiation oncologist Liton Nath Biswas and surgeon Pinaki Banerjee.
The benefits of the multi-specialty tertiary hospital were further exemplified when the patient developed severe pneumonia after returning home, requiring admission once more, when he had to be put on ventilator. But he soon recovered under the treatment of the hospital’s critical care team.
