Times Of India article
Dr Puneet Gupta, 42, India’s first certified cancer specialist and currently attached to the Indraprastha Apollo hospital, has taken upon himself the task of making cancer therapy affordable to every common man in the country.
His take on the subject: With the latest medical care, detection machines and screening instruments, including mammography machines, PET scan, cancer patients in the country should get equal, if not better, treatment than those in the US, and at affordable prices.
“We have to look into the physical, mental, social, economical and spiritual aspects of a cancer patient before treating him so that we doctors are able to deliver in a comprehensive way,” Dr Gupta says.
The first doctor in India who has done an MD, DNB and DM in oncology — all certified by the Medical Council of India – Dr Gupta is also the first Indian to deliver trans-arterial chemotherapy by using arterial electronic pump and to use latest targeted monoclonal antibody therapy for head and neck cancer.
A Padmashree hopeful, Dr Gupta has under his belt a string of awards, including Leading Scientist of the World 2004, Certificate of Merit Award, Glory of India 2007, Vijay Shree 2005, and Indira Gandhi Shromani.
A practitioner of synchronous chemo radiation therapy and organ sparing technique, Dr Gupta says, the Indian way of treating cancer is the best in the world now, as in the US the method of treatment is predominantly modern. But in India the approach is total cancer care.
Earlier, one had to depend on the US for drugs to treat cancer which was unaffordable. However, the same drugs are available now here at reasonable prices. For example, persons suffering from lung and head-neck cancer bank upon Geftinib capsules, hard to come by in India till recently. However, it is now being made available here by the drug company NATCO.
Multiple Myloma (bone marrow cancer), which the former PM Chandrasekhar was suffering from, can now be treated with an injection with no wastage, whereas 60 per cent of the US-made injection goes waste, says Dr Gupta.
A member of various national and international cancer bodies, Dr Gupta also wants to be an effective link between the drug industry and cancer patients.
It is trailblazers like Dr Puneet Gupta who can lead the way to making India self-sufficient and a force to reckon with.
Dr. Puneet Gupta is Vice President of India chapter of My Himachal
This Dr Puneet Gupta, who you have so glorified here, is one of the most incompetent oncologist we have come across. We want the readers to know that he is somebody who is driven my greed and has very little experience when it comes to complex cases. My father, 77yrs, is suffering from multiple Myeloma. 6 months into treatment his cancer had gone into remission. Dr Puneet Gupta, at Apollo Delhi, suggested a consolidatory therapy which would prolong the remission period.He put him on Velcade therapy, a drug which has been approved by FDA (USA) as late as 2007. The scope of this drug is not very well established in India. Nevertheless he started giving 2 injections per week. After 4 injections in 2 weeks, which constitute one cycle, my father had pulmonary Edema ( water in the lungs). Mr Gupta said “this is not a side effect of velcade. We wanted to stop the injections but he convinced us that ” they are a must”. Soon after the 5th injection my father lost strength to stand up by himself. The medicine started to effect his motor nerves. By 6th injection my father, trying to stand up, had fallen at least 6 times and we desparately wanted to stop. But the doc assured us of the long term benefits and convinced us that the weakning of nerves are a reversible process. He urged us to finish at least the second cycle , i.e. 2 more injections. We got the 7th injection but after that my father lost all nerve sensation and started to lose his mental balance as well. The doctor still insisted on getting one last injection to complete the cycle. We put our foot down. Today my father lies in his bed crippled unable to move. A leading oncologist told us that velcade is not given to patients over 70 years.
Such a nasty doctor i came across. He should not be given padamshree at any cost.
I had a horrible experience with Dr Puneet Gupta, oncologist (cancer specialist) & his team (Dr Amar & Dr R K Arora) in Metro hospital at Preet Vihar, Delhi. My father was having low grade fever for 6 months and since a week he was getting pain in lymph node in the front leg region.
Dr Puneet checked my uncle, was very sweet & advised my uncle a series of tests – PET, Bone marrow biopsy & lymph node biospsy (in that order), blood tests etc (total cost: Rs 50000+). The reports were nil – no infection, no cancer etc. The area around lymph node became a huge boil after the biospsy by Dr R K Arora & started oozing pus. On 7th day when he could not bear the pain & we took him to casualty (sunday). The doctor refused to see him as it is not his patient !! Just gave him pain killers and asked him to come on Monday & see Dr Amar who is your doctor. (Am I in a mall or a hospital ? This is not my shop but take him to Dr Puneet’s shop?) Sunday night my father was in great pain & almost crying even though he is a brave man.
On Monday, he went empty stomach to Dr Amar who first refused to see the region (no time) and then on our pleading saw it & then consulted Dr Puneet Gupta on phone. The region was oozing pus & was red. The infection from biopsy had spread.
Instead of cleaning & surgically removing the big boil on lymph node (see pic), he asked us to take the slides from Metro Noida branch and refer to another Lab for second opinion( I think Dabur in new delhi). More money! No pus cleaning, no removal – just take him to another opinion. Criminal. Total apathy. We then rushed for slides (cancer is so scary that it kills your reasoning) not realizing that Metro had a duty to do an emergency clean up FIRST. We thought that this is more urgent. Metro Noida asked us to come on Tuesday for slides. Fools we are. real fools. Monday night for my uncle was perhaps the most horrible in his lifetime.
On tuesday, thank god, we went to AIIMS and the surgeon in OPD took control. He operated on him by evening & stopped the serious infection going to organs. Almost drained 150ml of pus. I want to thank AIIMS surgical department really (Dr Sandeep Agarwal was the dr) . Shame on Metro doctors who are so polite when you show them & change colors when they think that the patient cannot be milked further. Look at the boil when we showed them & they asked us to show the biospy slides & we wasted 24 more hours in addition to 2 previously. they gave only pain killers.
For god sake, if you have messed and infected your patient during biopsy, own up, give us a way out & not throw us to another opinion