CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, July 19: A 45-year-old man, suffering from two different cancer, had undergone chemotherapy at Bhagwan Mahavir Medica Superspecialty Hospital and is currently out of danger.
Dr Gunjesh Kumar Singh (MBBS, MD, DM medical oncology) said that the patient is responding to the treatment and is quite better than before.
“The patient came to us with a 10 cm lump in the neck along with breathing difficulty due to compression effect of the mass. He said he was diagnosed with parotid cancer outside. On examining it, I found a lump in both of his armpits which is not seen in parotid cancer. We sent the lump for biopsy and it was found that he was positive for lung cancer,” the doctor said.
The doctor said that he was diagnosed with dual malignancy which was missed in the earlier tests. So the patient had two different cancers at the same time.
“I started treatment for both cancers with chemotherapy and targeted therapy. The patient responded very well and the disease is well in control now. He had two life-threatening cancers,” the doctor said.
The doctor advised that everyone should be aware and should not neglect any unusual lumps in the body otherwise these life-threatening cancers can be missed and the patients can’t be saved. He added that two cancers in the same person at the same time are very rare and have a poor prognosis.
“The incidence of multiple primary cancers is reported to be less than 1%. The occurrence of another malignancy of different organs in patients with known malignant tumour is known as dual or multiple primary malignancies,” the doctor said.