It is not just another day on the calendar but February 4, which is celebrated as Cancer Day and has mobilised action across the world to make the globe cancer-free.
At Pune’s Prashanti Cancer Care Mission (PCCM), Dr C B Koppiker, founder director and breast onco surgeon says losing a breast to cancer is no longer an option. Over the years, Dr Koppiker has performed over 900 oncoplastic breast surgeries and over 250 reconstructions.
“Once a doctor diagnoses a patient with breast cancer, the primary concern is to effectively treat the patient. In India, mastectomy or complete removal of the breast is still the preferred approach in most centres for breast cancer management. However, for many patients, the appearance of the breast influences their self-perception and self-image. As a result, mastectomy is often known to result in loss of self-esteem and reduced quality of life (QoL) for a woman. Breast-conserving surgery (BCS/BCT) is an oncologically safe approach that also maintains the cosmesis of the breast in most of the cases,” Dr Koppiker said.
Oncoplastic surgeries are a combination of good cancer surgery along with plastic surgery techniques. “In our centre, 80 per cent of the patients undergo Breast Conserving Therapy (BCT) and only 20 per cent undergo Mastectomy (complete breast removal). Moreover, even among the 20 per cent of mastectomy patients, most undergo total reconstruction of the breast. We want no patient to lose her breast to breast cancer,” he said.
In a country where 50 per cent of breast cancers are diagnosed in an advanced stage and mastectomy is still the accepted gold-standard, Dr Koppiker felt the need for a structured programme to improve breast conservation rates and set up an International School of Oncoplastic Surgery (ISOS) in 2014. The ISOS has renowned faculty from the Association of Breast Surgeons, UK, University of East Anglia (UEA) UK and India. The school trains and equips surgeons in state-of-the-art techniques in oncoplastic breast surgery. In association with the UEA, ISOS was able to introduce the first Masters in Oncoplastic Surgery Training Program in the country in 2017.
Courses like these are essential to help adopt the oncoplastic mindset, said Dr Koppiker, whose efforts to introduce the formal training programme have paid off.
“We have trained over 500 surgeons until now. A cross-sectional survey to measure the combined impact of the UEA course and ISOS hands-on oncoplastic workshops included 170 questions and the analysis had 92% of respondents reporting that this course had positively impacted their practice and greatly increased their confidence in the adaptation of various oncoplastic techniques,” he said.
Breast oncology workshop and conference 2023 from February 3-5
Continuing with its aim, to provide knowledge and one-to-one training with expertise in Breast Oncoplasty and Oncology, ISOS in association with BreastGlobal, Jehangir Hospital and the University of East Anglia, UK has organised the Breast Oncology Workshop and Conference 2023 from February 3-5 in Pune.
International and National Breast oncoplastic faculties, medical oncologists, and radiologists will participate and on the occasion of world cancer day, there will be a commemoration with the convocation ceremony for the Master’s students who have successfully completed their MS in Oncoplasty degree. A book, ‘Genetic Testing: A game changer in Breast Cancer Management’ by Laleh Busheri, will be launched on the occasion. The book features personal stories of women emphasising the management options for breast cancer predisposition.
