Senior Scientist and Medical Research Molecular Oncology at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre Saudi Arabia Dr. Murugan Avaniyapuram Kannan wear the hat of humility like a hilt despite his incredible and numerous breakthrough achievements in the field of medical science. A name to reckon with as one looks at both his academic and professional credentials, just to name a few of them, post-doctoral fellow at Hoshi University, Japan, and at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, respectively. Dr. Kannan is someone through his sharp mind, humility and intellect effortlessly win the hearts and minds of his audience listening and watching in awe as his seamless knowledge unfurls in the field of oncology.
October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month where the Teacher for Indian Culture (TIC)-Yoga Ms. Sowmya under the aegis of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Indian Culture (IGCIC) is leaving no stone unturned through her relentless and tireless efforts being lauded by many to facilitate such online talks bringing it to the reach of Yoga aficionados through such eminent personalities like Dr. AK Murugan on the subject that drew an enthusiastic crowd at the venue.
TIC Sowmya Ji quoted the Raja Randhi Deva story from the Mahabharata about a King and powers in a Kingdom serving as a reminder of the need for us to show humility and simplicity that perhaps would best describe Dr. A.K Murugan. The story of a King whose Kingdom was afflicted with hunger and lingering on helplessly where he was compelled to sell his property to nearby countries until someone urged him in offering prayers to Hari, Lord Krishna.
The legend, Sowmya Ji tells, is the King not eating anything and fasted for 41 days, except taking a sip of offering (Prasad) and praying to God. On the 41st day when he was tired and was having offerings, a countryman appeared in front of him and begged for food since he was hungry, followed by a seer’s visit asking for the same. The King gave everything and there was nothing left for him when Lord Krishna appeared in front of him and told in Sankrit, “I don’t want a country…I don’t want wealth…I want a heart serving the commoners.”
It is in this context of this legendary story that Ms. Sowmya in her unique and relatable style introduced Dr. AK Murugan in those terms: “The doctor is such a good and down-to-earth personality that I don’t know how to introduce him. The way he is working and helping people makes me short of words to speak about such a noble person working with the John Hopkins Hospital and was then called by the Saudi Arabia Government to set up an Oncology Lab and Research Hospital.”
Breast cancer, dying tissues and lumps
At the onset of the breast cancer awareness presentation, Dr. Murugan started by defining cancer to make it easy for the audience to grasp before diving deep into the subject matter. “Cancer is a disease in which some of the body cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. Cancer can be a tumor while in some other forms of cancers it need not be the case,” he explains.
The medical expert further explains on lump spotted on the body saying that even if a particular cell exists and multiplies making it the biggest tumor and what is called a cancer automatic tumor that can be problematic in spreading from one place to another. Even in the scenario of a non-benign and non-cancerous tumor, a lump sprouting can be operated on to help prevent its spread. It is completely curable and many people get such benign tumors on the surface of their bodies.
The Doctor underlines the cancerous tumors that measure one centimetre and even if small, the latter have an ability in spreading quickly to various body parts where single cells often take 14 to 18 hours in spreading while cancer cells often take 5 to 7 hours in multiplying.
One of the issues where doubt often creeps into people’s minds is skin allergy where Dr. AK Murugan dissipates the various misunderstandings or misinformation while saying that in the case of skin allergy, until and unless it is diagnosed one cannot say for sure that it’s cancer. “In 99 percent of cases, such appearances often occur as a result of allergies and only one percent can be accounted as cancer,” he tells.
The talk hinges on the definition of breast cancer as: “Abnormal and uncontrolled syndrome which is generally found in the breast tissue being the second leading form of cancer following lung cancer in the United States.”
He hinted at recent cases where many people after receiving the Pfizer jab for coronavirus complained about lumps while emphasising that the latter doesn’t lead to cancer. Of course, he says if lumps spotted on the skin surface don’t wane after two weeks and are deemed to be suspicious, a diagnosis should be done.
Ultrasound, Mammography and MRI
There are various ways to help detect breast cancer, among which the need for early detection where it is recommended to consult a doctor every 6 months or one year and self-examination to check for lumps often found on the lip, nose or under the arms. The need for detection techniques such as ultrasound can cause some radiation but is not always the case; advanced technique methods such as mammography; Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-the latter doesn’t cause much radiation and is deemed to be very mild in relation to X-ray.
Here Dr. AK Murugan emphasises differentiating between the dying tissues from the normal ones to help determine cancer. The MRI he says is 100 percent accurate method where it is able to differentiate the cancer probability very easily; Biopsis-100 percent invasive technique where a thick needle termed Fine Needle Aspiration is used, the latter takes a small amount of tissue from the breast gland or body.
Stages of Cancer: 0-IV
Stage 0: Non-Invasive breast cancer and the most favourable stage to detect and 100 percent curable.
Stage I: Breast Cancer is less than three-quarters of an inch in diameter and has not spread from the breast.
Stage II: Breast Cancer fairly small in size but spread to lymph nodes in the armpit OR cancer that is somewhat larger but not spread to lymph nodes.
Stage III: Breast cancer of a larger size greater than 2 inches in diameter with greater lymph node involvement, or of the inflammatory type. Spread to other areas around the breast.
Stage IV is Metastatic breast cancer: A tumor of any size or type that has metastasized to another part of the body such as bones, lungs, liver or brain. The least favourable stage is finding breast cancer.
First, radiation entails low beam radiation from various isotopes; Vaccine-Herceptin depending on the type of biological therapy, breast cancer treatment drug, and monoclonal antibody therapy; Surgery-it entails lumpectomy, simple mastectomy, and modified radical mastectomy.
Dr. Murugan gave the example of a 50-year-old woman who was recently diagnosed with triple negative cancer where at this stage, radiation becomes difficult where the body doesn’t respond to any form of chemotherapy, and the results owing to regular therapy showing the tumor growing in size from 1.2 cm to 3 cm.
Causes of Breast Cancer, advocated methods
The doctor outlines several causes of breast therapy which encompasses family history, not having children-particularly the first one at age 30 as a risk factor, overweight, different kinds of radiation for different ailments can also be a cause, overweight, late menopause, and age.
In his concluding remarks, Dr. AK Murugan observes: “The biggest risk for breast cancer includes age, sex, and genetics together with the fact that it is considered as one of the highest cancer killers among women together with the fact that BRCA1/BRCA2 only affect 5 percent cases.
During the interactive session at the end and in reply to a doctor present during the talk on preferred and less risky treatment, the eminent cancer specialist told: “Ultrasound is considered as a very good method for self-examination or that of a physician where there is no radiation risk coupled with being ultra good for everyone. Several other good options for patients such as MRI and mammography are recommended for older age groups.”
