KARACHI: Patients of prostate cancer in Pakistan would greatly benefit if robot-assisted radical prostatectomy is introduced in the country. Though costly, the procedure in not only less painful as compared to the traditional surgical way of removing the prostate gland along with affected tissues, but also involves less blood loss, shorter hospital stays and recovery period.

This was stated by Prof Serajuddaula Syed, a senior histopathologist, while narrating his recent experience of cancer treatment at an Indian hospital the other day. The event was held at PMA House.

Diagnosed with prostate cancer six months ago, Prof Syed, aged 70, decided to have robotic radical prostatectomy at Medanta Hospital in the Indian state of Haryana.

Initially, he told the audience, he was totally confused which treatment he should opt for as different experts recommended different ways of treating cancer, including CyberKnife system which is meant for very early cancer, radiotherapy, radical prostatectomy, robotic radical prostatectomy, hormonal therapy and a combination of various methods.

“That period was very disturbing as I have had the fear that my cancer might spread to other parts of the body as I took my time and continued consulting one doctor after another.”

It was only after Prof Syed spoke to Dr Anwar Hussain practicing in the UK that he finally made up his mind for robotic radical prostatectomy and started reading about it.

Sharing how he arrived at that decision, he said: “Dr Hussain encouraged me to have the latest treatment available and that I shouldn’t worry about my age at all. He told me that I should consider myself five to seven years younger as I maintain good health.”

According to him, the particular robotic surgery cost Rs4 million in the UK and Rs9m in USA. “Though this surgery is nowhere offered in Pakistan, India is offering it to patients from across the world at least at a dozen places in the country at a much lesser cost of Rs1.1m excluding travel cost etc. I opted for India also because I had friends who could support me there.”

At the hospital, one of the first tests he had was stress echocardiography which was carried out to see whether his body could bear the surgery.

“Being healthy is important to have any kind of medical procedure. And, though I don’t do any kind of physical exercise, I walk a lot and always prefer using stairs,” he said in reply to a question.

Prof Syed was discharged the same day in the evening after undergoing a surgery and was back to normal life by the third day.

“A disease of aging, prostate cancer is the commonest cancer in men worldwide. It is recommended that men at 60 should have a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test once a year while those with a family history of cancer should have it early. The test tells how healthy your prostate gland is.”

Experts during the discussion underlined the need for early diagnosis of prostate cancer for which, they pointed out, regular screening was the key since in most cases symptoms of the disease were not apparent and might be caused by other conditions.

“It’s unfortunate that this robotic surgery is not available anywhere in Pakistan. The doctors here claim that it’s not financially viable to introduce because it is a costly procedure and not many patients are available, which I think is incorrect,” Prof Syed concluded.

Visa woes

He spoke highly of the hospital staff and said that he received excellent care and treatment. The only problem, he said, he faced was in getting the visa which he acquired after 10 days and that too after seeking help of an influential person.

Dr Sarwar Jamil Siddiqui, who accompanied Prof Syed to India, mentioned the problems he had to face at the police headquarter where he was made to wait for hours and had to go through undue hassle.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018