Cancer in India detected late, says global expert

Indians are twice more prone to aggressive prostate cancer than “Caucasians” (western world), said Dr Ashutosh Tewari, a leading global expert in prostate cancer, after the announcement of the launch of the Institute for Prostate Cancer in Pune on Wednesday. HT reports.

Indians are twice more prone to aggressive prostate cancer than “Caucasians” (western world), said Dr Ashutosh Tewari, a leading global expert in prostate cancer, after the announcement of the launch of the Institute for Prostate Cancer in Pune on Wednesday.

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The institute, being developed by the Kalyani group, an industrial house, in association with the Ruby Hall Clinic, will work in the field of research, diagnosis, treatment and education about prostate cancer, which, experts say, is a genetic disease and has accelerated in the country over the past few years. “Among Indians there are two times more chance that prostate cancer has escalated,” said Tewari, who serves as Ronald P Lynch professor of urology-oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Stressing the need for an early diagnosis of the disease, Tewari, who is director of the new institute, said in every eight out of 10 cases in India, prostate cancer was detected in an advanced stage when it was found to have spread all over the body.

Tewari, who has performed more than 3,500 robotic prostatectomy surgeries and has more than 200 published papers to his credit, said: “In 20% cases, prostate cancer is (passed on) from father to son.”

Baba Kalyani, promoter of the prostate cancer institute and chairman, Kalyani group, said: “Prostate cancer today is the second-largest cause of death in males — after lung cancer. Our endeavour is to create awareness about this potentially lethal disease and focus on research, early diagnosis and treatment.”

The institute will add in its second phase within six months robotic technology for surgeries relating to prostate cancer, said Dr PK Grant, managing trustee, Ruby Hall Clinic.