Posts by author
Swagata Yadavar
Project ECHO: spreading access to specialist care through democratising knowledge
Manjula (not her real name) was deeply surprised when she was diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer at the age of 52. She was healthy and had no other ailments. And when her medical team in South India addressed her…
Delivering cervical cancer screening across India: the plan… and the practice
Gynaecologist Shalini Singh remembers the Pap smears she carried out until around twenty years ago, when she was working at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences, in New Delhi. “We had about 15 Pap smear bottles per day…
India’s Lung Connect shows value of online cancer support in low-income settings
It was April 2020. Just a few weeks earlier, India had imposed a national lockdown – among the harshest in the world. Ramkrishna Bhadhury, 44, a farmer from a small village in Nalikul, West Bengal, was feeling increasingly dejected and…
Sri Lanka cancer care hit by foreign currency crisis
A shortage of essential cancer drugs caused by financial crisis is threatening to dampen Sri Lanka’s success in treating cancer as part of a free health service. The country is facing its worst economic crisis since 1948, with huge foreign…
North and South ‒ learning faster means learning together
When you look at the vast waiting area in Mumbai’s world leading Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, pictured above, what do you see? A crowded chaotic scene where sick patients and their relatives sit around for hours, waiting, hoping for someone…
Most basic cancer drugs remain inaccessible in low- and lower-middle-income countries
Despite being available for more than 20 years, basic cancer drugs found to be most effective against the disease can still not be accessed by patients in most low- and lower-middle-income countries according to a new study. The paper, published…
Careers of women in oncology hit by Covid-19 pandemic
The pandemic has seen the careers of female physicians working in oncology suffer as they have taken on more domestic responsibilities during lockdowns. Recent studies have indicated the trend may be global and long lasting. A new paper published in…
Decolonising cancer research: why it matters, what can be done
When cancer epidemiologist and medical doctor Nirmala Bhoo-Pathy returned to Malaysia in 2011 after completing her PhD in cancer epidemiology in the Netherlands, she hadn’t expected the move to negatively affect her research prospects. As it turns out, she was…
Indian cancer care struggles with pandemic of late diagnoses and delayed treatments
An average cancer patient in India usually seeks treatment three months after the symptoms appear. Due to lack of transport facilities and fear of contracting coronavirus, the time to seek care during the COVID-19 pandemic has doubled, with patients finally…