Those bone cancer patients, who are haunted by the spectre of amputated limbs, can heave a sigh of relief. A specialty treatment now available at HealthCare Global Enterprises’ Bangalore Institute of Oncology (HCG-BIO) can help save the affected bone and keep the patient’s mobility.
“Bone cancer is as deadly as any of other variant. It can cripple young people and cause death in the long run. Like other cancers, bone cancer kills. The saddest part is that this cancer afflicts young people in the age group of 10 to 20. It is more insidious considering that the affliction takes place early in one’s life and gets worse within a short span of time, depriving the patient of all options but surgery and bone replacement,” said Dr Pramod S Chinder, orthopedic oncology expert.
“Though it is said to be a rare condition, we have detected 85 cases of Ewing and Osteo sarcoma (sarcoma is a type of cancer that develops from certain tissues such as bone or muscle); we have been treating these cases at HCG-BIO for the last 18 months,” he said.
“As in other types of cancer, patients come for treatment very late, making it difficult for surgeons to make the treatment effective. In many cases, patients spend much time seeking opinions and in the process, lose their precious lives. In Ewing and Osteo sarcoma, the bone gets affected in the advanced case and many a time, we have to amputate. This is very traumatic and makes the patient dependent on others. But with the new specialty, we can detect both types of bone cancers in early stages,as well as take measures to save the bone and keep the patient mobile,” he said.
“Even in cases where the bone is beyond repair, there is a surgical method where we can replace it with a donor bone. Soon we will start a bone bank in Bangalore,” said Dr Intezar Mehdi, oncologist and bone marrow transplant expert at HCG-BIO.
“We are spreading awareness about sarcoma in Karnataka and soon there will be many centres in the state to identify sarcoma,”
Dr Mehdi said.
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