Dr. Sumit Shah, consultant cancer surgeon of PROLIFE CANCER CENTRE, Pune received the ‘Promising Surgical Oncologist of the year – 2019 in India’, at the hands of Mr. Ashwini Kumar Chobe, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and a member of the 17th Lok Sabha, at the 7th Global Healthcare Excellence Awards, 2019 & Summit, held at New Delhi last fortnight. Dr. Shah received this award for his contribution in the field of oncology, for the past 12 years. Dr. Sumit Shah is a renowned Cancer surgeon in Pune.

Dr. Shah has extensively worked on cancer awareness, tobacco deaddiction, and delivered many talks in schools and colleges about the harmful effects of tobacco. He has been conducting free OPD for tobacco deaddiction since the last 5 years. As the field of oncology is growing he is promoting recent trends of organ and function preservation surgery where along with cure, he ensures that patients lead a quality life.

That’s not all – he has also been performing keyhole (laparoscopy) surgeries for cancer which keeps patients pain free with fewer scars and early recovery. Over the last five years, he has performed many free cancer surgeries for the underprivileged sector in remote parts of Western Maharashtra.

Dr. Shah recently started a comprehensive cancer hospital, PROLIFE CANCER CENTRE in Pune, to eliminate the fear of cancer from people’s minds and make them realize that cancer is a curable disease.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in India. In 2018 there were 22.5 lakh cancer patients... Every year 11.5 lakh new cancer patients are detected and almost 7.84 lakh deaths occur due to cancer. The major causes of this disease are tobacco, HPV infection and changing lifestyle and obesity. In the western world majority of cancers are cured, however sadly, in India most of the patients start their treatment at a late stage.

Says Dr. Shah, “To overcome this hurdle, we must create awareness. Most importantly people should change their mindset and accept that cancer is a curable disease. If we know common symptoms of common cancers in India we can detect cancer at an early stage and treat them and they can be cured”.

“Breast and cervical cancer in females, Oral cavity (mouth), lung and stomach cancer in males are commonest cancers in India. While Cervical cancer can be avoided by HPV vaccines, oral cancer can be avoided by tobacco deaddiction and the rest by leading a healthy lifestyle and avoiding obesity. All these common cancers in India are due to preventable causes. Timely action and increase in awareness can reduce half of the cancer burden in India”, sums up Dr. Shah.