World Cancer Day: Trials to develop yoga, ayurveda as alternative to cancer treatment soon

“Ovarian cancer responds very well to treatment, but relapses once the treatment is over,” said Dr Shripad Banavali, director, academics in Tata Hospital. “It is time we open up to alternative medicines to see if an integrated approach of allopathy and ayurveda can provide better outcomes.”

The hospital is planning to acquire land to grow medicinal plants near its Kharghar facility to conduct more research. The hospital is also conducting a clinical trial to assess whether yoga, done alongside conventional treatment, can help improve a patient’s health.

Every year, one million new cancer cases are registered in India, with 7.8 lakh deaths occurring annually. The number of cancer patients in the country is on the rise, with oral cancer accounting for 40 per cent of these cases. World Cancer Day is marked on February 4 to encourage its prevention, detection and treatment.

The latest clinical trial on yoga covers 850 breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy in the Parel-based hospital.

Started five years ago, the hospital is in the process of collating final data on whether yoga has improved quality of life, affected mortality of patients, and improved rate of success of treatment. “Preliminary data shows those who do yoga while undergoing treatment had better tolerance levels to chemotherapy,” said Dr Rajendra Badwe, director of Tata Memorial Hospital.

Under the study, half of the 850 patients were given daily exercises, while the other half were encouraged to do yoga with those exercises. “We approached different schools of yoga. Based on the asanas they recommended, our clinicians, physiotherapists and yoga experts together prepared modules,” said Nishu Singh Goel, coordinator for the study. The principal investigator of the study is Dr Nita Nair.

A breast cancer patient is trained in yoga for five days in the hospital. Before a chemotherapy session or surgery, they are encouraged to do certain asanas, including pranayama, for an hour every day. “If the patient has undergone radiation, we ensure asanas of the chest are avoided, since it is already compromised due to surgery,” Singh said.

According to Dr Jayita Deodhar, head of palliative care department in the hospital, “This trial is to check if treatment outcome or quality of life improves due to yoga,” she said.

New software

Given that a large number of hospitals seek reimbursement of cancer treatment under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and that no checks are done to assess whether treatment given to patients for cancer is correct, the Tata Memorial Hospital is now creating a software that Ayushman Bharat will use before approving a hospital’s application for PMJAY beneficiary.