Dr Rajesh Gupta Awarded First Prize in Special Mention Poster by IASG for Work on Cancer Esophagus

In the recently concluded 21st National conference of the Indian Association of Surgical Gastroenterology held from 13-16 October at Jaipur, Dr. Rajesh Gupta was awarded first prize in Special Mention Poster. The authors were Dr Rajesh Gupta, Dr Sunil Shenvi, Dr Rakesh Kapoor, Dr. NM Gupta, Dr. SC Sharma, Dr. SS Rana, Dr. DK Bhasin, and Dr. Rajinder Singh.

The study was started in Dept. Of Surgery and Radiotherapy in1999 by Dr. Rajesh Gupta under the guidance of Dr. NM Gupta and Dr. SC Sharma and subsequently carried on by Dr Rajesh Gupta, Additional professor in Surgical Gastroenterology Division and Dr. Rakesh Kapoor, Additional professor in Radiation Oncology for last 10 years.
Award was for the impact of treatment on survival in cancer esophagus by adding chemotherapy and radiotherapy before surgery. More than 10 years of experience showed that 5-year survival has significantly improved from 5% to 20% in locally advanced disease with the addition of chemotherapy and radiotherapy before surgery without adding to any increase in surgical complications or operative time. We now have some of the patients surviving more than 10 years after surgery with this treatment.

This disease has a very dismal outlook as almost all patients in India present in the advanced stage with significant difficulty in swallowing with hardly any 5-year survivors despite best efforts. This disease also has a very strong association with smoking