Radiation therapy gives mouth cancer patient new life

For 45-year-old Gagan Wadhwa, life came to a standstill after he was diagnosed with mouth cancer as a result of chewing tobacco. The Delhi resident — an avid gym lover — had stage 3 cancer and was not able to open his mouth and the internal tissues of mouth got damaged severely and bursted. Doctors at Max Super Speciality Hospital Vaishali suggested immediate surgery followed by sessions of radiation therapy. The therapy helped immensely in curing the cancer completely and gave Wadhwa a new life. “Radiation therapy is an extremely targeted treatment precisely acting on cancer wherever it may be in the body. This allows the cancer cells to be killed or be reduced in number while safeguarding most of the healthy organs and tissues in the body,” said Dr. Vineet Nakra, Radiation Oncologist at Max Super Speciality Hospital Vaishali, who treated Wadhwa. “For treating Wadhwa we used intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) which are advanced therapies that deliver radiation with higher degrees of precision, hence the patient faces minimal side effects,” Dr. Nakra explained.