Making cancer treatment affordable and accessible remains one of India’s hardest medical battles. Most patients turn up at hospitals when the disease has already spread.
For surgical oncologist Dr Soumen Das, one incident involving an elderly woman, whom he calls Mithu dida, has shaped the way he works. “She lived beside Sealdah station in a small jhupri,” he said. “She had breast cancer. Her son refused to take responsibility,” he said.
When she reached Vinayak Hospital in north Calcutta in 2017, where Dr Das practises, the disease was at an early stage and treatable. The surgery cost around ₹1 lakh; she could arrange ₹20,000. “The rest was covered by some of us. We didn’t take any fees.” After surgery, Mithu dida required eight cycles of chemotherapy, but took only one. Just because her pain eased after surgery, she assumed she was cured.
A year later, she returned with metastasis — when the disease reached her bones.
“Hers was a fully curable situation initially. But as her treatment was not completed, everything changed. Affordability, accessibility, awareness — all three failed her,” said the doctor.
Dr Das has recently been honoured with the Vanessa Moss Award for Cancer Health Disparity Day at London Global Cancer Week (LGCW), a recognition that highlights his dedication to advancing equitable cancer care and addressing disparities in access, treatment and outcomes.
“The Vanessa Moss Award is a profound recognition of our work to address cancer care disparities. I hope this honour inspires many clinician-researchers across India to pursue impactful, equity-focused research. I dedicate this award to all my patients, and the entire prize money will be directed towards advancing cancer research.”
This year, more than 60 high-quality research works were submitted for the award from across the world, including the UK, the US, China, India, several European nations and countries across Africa.
From these, the top 10 were selected for oral presentation. Among those, Dr Das’s innovation in breast cancer early detection was chosen by the London Global Cancer Week Steering Committee as the most influential contribution.
Calcutta-born Kanad Basu, who is a business professor at USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles, is also the director of international partnerships at the IBDK.
As an AI expert, Basu said his work as director was to use technology to make "provide the patient's real comfort during the hardest moments of a cancer journey".
Lauding the oncologist for his global recognition, Basu said: "What makes the IBDK truly special is the clinical brilliance of leaders like Dr Soumen Das, whose research and patient-centric approach are setting new standards for comprehensive breast-care in South Asia. His recent recognition is richly deserved, and we are proud to see IBDK being featured on OncoDaily, one of the world’s most respected platforms in oncology."
Back home, one of the ideas is clear — for poor people, financial collapse needs to be averted while they are undergoing long-term treatment.
Several practical worries trouble most cancer patients and their caregivers. For families coming from districts, at least one caregiver must stay with the patient in Calcutta, which usually means losing wages back home. “To prevent that, we try to give one family member a temporary job in the city — it could be within the hospital ecosystem or nearby. They earn, they stay close, and the patient completes the full course,” said Dr Das.
This arrangement, he said, had brought down the number of patients who stop treatment midway.
Another effort came from former patients.
Many women who have completed their cancer treatment now volunteer to call newly diagnosed patients regularly — especially those who sound hesitant and scared.
“They tell them, ‘We’ve gone through this, don’t stop now’,” Dr Das said. “Hearing a survivor’s voice makes a difference in a way doctors or hospital staff members sometimes can’t.”
Such calls have kept many patients on track, particularly women struggling with either stigma or the length of treatment.
A study by Dr Das's team looked at two delays — the time taken to seek a first consultation, and the time taken from the first consultation to diagnosis. The second delay was "as large as the first".
Many patients first consult practitioners who are untrained to identify cancer, leading to time lost.
Dr Das acknowledged that rural health care runs heavily on quacks. His team, therefore, designed a three-hour module to make the most of it terms of early breast cancer detection. The course uses a scoring system, BCRADS, which helps categorise breast lumps and decide when to refer patients without delay.
The team has trained 3,000 such practitioners across North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Hooghly districts so far. The module is free online, with hands-on sessions twice a year.
More so, the Institute of Breast Diseases, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Cancer Hospital, Calcutta, launched the Project Pink Alert, which began with a statewide webinar. It reached 1.8 lakh school students from Classes VII to XI.
“If a child tells her father to stop smoking, the father listens,” Dr Das said. “These are small steps,” Dr Das said. “But each one is meant to prevent another Mithu dida from getting lost in the system.”