Last stage of liver cancer? There’s
hope
Even stage IV liver cancer
patients have chances of survival— this is the message that doctors in the city
tried to convey through Liver Update 2012, a conference on liver surgery held
in the city on Sunday.
The event aims to spread
awareness about the various treatments available for liver metastases from
colorectal cancer. Liver metastases refers to the cancer that is first detected
in the colon and then spreads to the liver.
Dr Hitesh Chavda, organising
secretary, Liver Update 2012, said that at least 20% of the patients suffering
from metastatic colorectal cancer —stage IV liver cancer—can be cured
completely.
He asserted that co-ordinated
effort on part of doctors is required to help such patients. “It is not the
work of surgeon alone. You need oncologists, radiologists and others. They need
to work together to explore a range of treatments and develop the one that is
of optimal use in a particular situation,” he explained.
Chavda added that not many
medical practitioners are aware of the curability of this type of cancer. “This
conference is an attempt to discuss the various modalities available and how
they can be used best,” he said.
However, he cautioned that the
curability was dependent on several factors including the size of the tumour,
its aggressiveness etc. “Nowadays, molecular markers can tell a doctor how a
patient will react to a certain therapy of cancer treatment,” he said.
He added that the exact cause of
colon cancer is not known. “However, the instances of colon cancer are 10 times
less than what we see in western countries,” he said. Chavda said that in 50%
of the cases, colon cancer may spread to the liver as well. “In 30% of the
cases, cancer would have spread from the colon to the liver by the time it is
detected,” he added.
Source: www.dnaindia.com
10.10.2012
Psychiatry
must be included in MBBS syllabus: Experts
On
the eve of World Mental Health Day at a discussion on ‘Depression: A Global
Crisis’, experts said that psychiatry must be included in the MBBS syllabus.
The event was organized at the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute
by the Karnataka State Mental Health Association.
‘We
need at least 1 lakh psychiatrists in India. The government must take steps to
include psychiatry as a subject in the MBBS syllabus; at least one semester
would be enough. If depression is treated with professional care, patients will
not hesitate to come forward to seek treatment,’ Justice N Kumar of the
Karnataka High Court said.
‘We
require trained professionals to help cure mental illness. For this, we need to
integrate mental healthcare into public healthcare. We need to create trained
professionals, who can handle mental healthcare at Primary Health Centers as
depression is highly prevalent in rural areas. MBBS doctors, counsellors,
nurses, etc can be trained. Medical colleges must design special courses for
mental health treatment,’ said Madam Goal, principal secretary, department of
health and family welfare and chairman, Karnataka State Mental Health
Authority. Karnataka has just two government institutes – Nimhans and Dharwad
Mental Institute — to treat mental illness. The government must set up more
institutes to treat mental illness, pointed Dr BN Magadha, professor,
department of psychiatry.
Source: http://health.india.com
10.10.2012
There is only one
thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure
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