In sixteen years as a Radiation Oncologist at [SPARSH Hospital, Hennur, Bengaluru - please confirm clinic name], I have treated over 5,000 patients with cancer. In my experience I have treated cancer from young age to old age. Each individual react in a unique way to cancer. Apart from the patient suffering from the side effect of treatment the emotional turmoil patient and the family undergo is enormous where words cannot explain. But with advanced scientific research the cancer treatment with radiation is very precise where the cancer is targeted without any normal tissue side effect. Always prevention is better than cure. Lifestyle choices meaningfully change cancer risk. That is the message I want to bring beyond my clinic and into the community, because I believe cancer prevention belongs to every person, not just to those who have already received a diagnosis.
Tobacco: the Most Important Single Modifiable Risk Factor
Tobacco use, whether smoked or chewed, is associated with cancers of the lung, mouth, throat, oesophagus, bladder, kidney, cervix, pancreas, and stomach, among others. In India, where both smoked and smokeless tobacco use are prevalent, the cancer burden from tobacco is substantial. Stopping tobacco use at any age reduces cancer risk, and the benefit begins almost immediately. I ask every patient I see whether they smoke or use tobacco, not because I am checking a box, but because the single most effective thing I can do for cancer prevention in my community is support people to stop. For patients who have already completed cancer treatment, stopping tobacco also improves treatment outcomes, reduces the risk of second cancers, and shortens recovery.
Diet, Weight, and Physical Activity
The link between obesity and cancer especially in women is stronger than most people realise. Excess body fat drives hormonal changes, chronic inflammation, and altered growth factor signalling that increase risk for cancers including breast, endometrial, colorectal, kidney, oesophageal, and gallbladder cancer. The most protective dietary pattern across the evidence is one that is high in vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and fruit, and low in red and processed meat, ultra-processed foods, and excess sugar. Alcohol consumption increases cancer risk, including breast cancer in women, at levels that many would consider moderate. A practical goal rather than a perfect one is what works: reduce processed meat consumption, increase vegetable variety, and aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. Exercise reduces cancer risk independently of weight, through mechanisms including reduction of circulating oestrogen, insulin, and inflammatory markers, factors particularly relevant to the breast and gynaecological cancers I specialise in.
Screening and Early Detection: the Lifestyle Decision Most Often Missed
One of the most important lessons from sixteen years of clinical practice is that the gap between a curable cancer and an incurable one is almost always the same thing: time. The lifestyle decision that many women in Bengaluru and across Karnataka are still not making is the decision to attend for regular cancer screening. For cervical cancer, a Pap smear or HPV test and the HPV vaccination are available, evidence-based, and highly effective. For breast cancer, monthly self-examination, annual clinical breast examination, and age-appropriate mammography are the interventions that catch the cancers I am most likely to be able to treat successfully. In my outreach programmes across urban and rural Karnataka, the most common reason women give for not attending screening is not cost or access, but a belief that symptoms will appear if something is wrong. That belief, repeated to me across thousands of conversations, is the single most dangerous misconception I encounter. Many early cancers produce no symptoms at all. Screening finds them before symptoms begin, which is precisely when treatment is most likely to succeed. Prevention and early detection are not passive choices. They are active decisions that require the same discipline and intentionality as any other investment in health. As a radiation oncologist, I see every day what it means when those decisions are made early, and what it costs when they are not.
To book a consultation with Dr. P Sasikala at SPARSH Hospital, Hennur Road, HBR Layout, Bengaluru 560043 (Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 5 PM), call +91 80958 09322.
Written by Dr. P Sasikala, MBBS (Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, Chennai, 2002), DMRT (Cancer Institute WIA, Adyar, Chennai, 2008), DNB Radiation Oncology (National Board of Examinations, New Delhi, 2012), Best Paper Award, Indian Brachytherapy Society (2016), Consultant Radiation Oncologist, SPARSH Hospital, Hennur Road, HBR Layout, Bengaluru 560043. Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Phone: +91 80958 09322.
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