JOIN USJustice K S Hegde Charitable Hospital, Deralakatte, has used modern technologies of Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in treating a cancer patient.
HIPEC is a technique where a highly concentrated cancer drug is heated and delivered directly into the abdomen during surgery. Unlike the conventional chemotherapy in which drugs are infused into the blood through the veins after surgery to destroy cancer cells, HIPEC delivers the chemotherapy directly to cancer cells in the abdomen.
Rani (name changed), a 45-year-old woman, underwent surgery and chemotherapy for ovarian cancer eight months ago, but cancer recurred and it was spreading to all parts of her abdomen.
The HIPEC procedure was performed on her as per the international guidelines using dedicated HIPEC machine imported from Italy and the procedure took around 15 hours. The patient is recovering after the operation.
The specialists were trained in HIPEC from NCI Milan, Italy and AIIMS, New Delhi. The procedure was done by Dr Vinay Kumar Rajendra, Surgical Oncologist and HIPEC Specialist along with the team of Oncologists Dr Vijith Shetty (Medical Oncologist), Dr Jayaram Shetty (HOD Radiation Oncology), Dr Ail Sandeep and Dr Mallikarjuna Rao, a team of Anaesthesiologists headed by Dr Sripad Mehandale and surgeons of Justice K S Hegde Charitable Hospital headed by Dr Rajashekar Mohan.
In this procedure, it is important that the recommended drug concentration and temperature are achieved. If not, the treatment would be ineffective. Moreover, any variation in drug dosage or temperature variations could be fatal.
The hospital is one of the first few cancer centres to use this technology at subsidised prices, at about 1/5th of the cost, which is currently ranging from Rs 8 lakh to 10 lakh without compromising the safety and quality in any way.