Oncology

The Department of Oncology at Aster Mother Hospital, Areekode provides comprehensive oncology care for patients who have been affected by Cancer. Cancer patients need accurate diagnosis and staging workup of cancer, multidisciplinary treatment and proper follow-up. In our department, our motto is Cancer Care and Cure with Clarity and Compassion. We strive with passion to provide this service to every cancer patient who comes to our department. From the oncologists, oncology nurses and the staff in administration, all efforts are done to provide the best care for the oncology patients and the onus is always to keep improving.  

We are involved in preventive oncology with North Kerala’s first Comprehensive Cancer Prevention Clinic also termed “Pink Clinic” started at our centre in October 2019. This clinic is led by a medical oncologist, gynaecologist and head and neck cancer surgeon and the protocol adopted is initial clinical risk assessment and screening followed by investigations as per international cancer screening guidelines. The onus is on the early detection of the most common cancers seen in our population like breast, cervical cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, and oral cancer etc.

Education regarding cancer prevention measures is given to each individual who comes for screening. Tobacco cessation is offered for eligible persons.  Each patient is provided with an individualized comprehensive treatment based on a tumour board meeting termed a Joint Clinic in Oncology (JCO). This helps to chart the optimum treatment course based on the multidisciplinary team approach, which is the current standard of care in cancer management.

The medical oncology unit takes care of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy for our cancer patients. The team derives its strength from the experience of oncologists who have more than a decade of experience in providing different systemic treatments and managing their toxicities as and when they occur. The department has one of the finest chemotherapy daycares in North Kerala with 12 bedded facility. Low-dose metronomic chemotherapy as pioneered by Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai is also provided at our centre by trained medical oncologists.  

Palliative care services are provided to all patients with cancer who have symptoms. Early palliative care is a very important aspect in the management of early cancers as they also need symptomatic control during their treatment. Advanced cancer patients are provided with pain relief measures along with palliation of other symptoms like fluid in the chest and abdomen, breathing difficulty etc. Oral morphine, Fentanyl patch etc are available for patient care.