Cal Med College & Hosp gives fresh lease of life to breast cancer patient

Kolkata: The Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) has given a fresh lease of life to a 32-year-old woman who had been suffering from breast cancer.

A team of doctors at the hospital had to remove her breast as the malignant tumour had spread. The doctors at the breast endocrine surgery department of the CMCH carried out a breast implant. According to the hospital sources, the patient is recovering well. The doctors are, however, keeping a tab to ensure that there is a proper blood circulation into the implanted breast.

The woman had a tumour in her breast and she visited a local hospital in the district where the doctors removed it and they also mistook it as a benign tumour. The woman thought she might have recovered but the complications arose a few months later. When she was brought to the CMCH for treatment, a CT scan was performed and it revealed that the tumour which was removed from the breast was a malignant one and cancer had already spread.

Histopathological tests also confirmed that it was a malignant tumour. The team of doctors formed for her treatment found that there was no option other than completely removing the breast.

The surgery department of the hospital had decided to conduct a breast implant surgery. Breast endocrine surgeons removed a portion of latissimus dorsi muscle and implanted breast with the help of the muscle. The patient was initially brought to the surgery department and later transferred to the breast endocrine department.

"The tumour was not properly removed by the hospital where she went initially. We performed various tests and found that cancer had spread into the lymph nodes in her arms. The muscles were removed from the lower back and the breast was implanted. The surgery lasted for nearly four hours. The patient has been doing fine," a senior official of the hospital said.