Liamify

“We will just give him some analgesia and HOPE to see him after 3 months.” These were the words of my attending oncologist during a round through the oncology ward and off we went to the next patient. The old man had prostate cancer that has spread to the spine and left him paralysed from the waist down for more than a year now. Of late he has also been talking irrelevantly. There are many of such patients whose cancer has spread beyond what can be treated. All we could do for him now is just palliative care. Cancer treatment is mainly stage-based and palliation is the last treatment modality for end-stage cancer. Loosely said, it’s basically that nothing can be done to stop the cancer at that stage. But how did we get here in the first place? Advanced cancer just doesn’t spring up from nowhere. Cancer is a progressive disease and MANY are CURABLE if detected early. Could it be a problem in the healthcare system? Could it be due to the low socio-economic status of our people th