Bashir Ahmad, a happy go lucky hardworking carpenter in his 70s, from Zainakote in Srinagar was suddenly faced with an unusual difficulty in swallowing solid food. He cherished his usual meal of rice, saag and meat and suddenly it hurt? Soon an obstructing growth in his food pipe which his biopsy proved to be a fairly common yet nasty cancer called ‘squamous cell carcinoma’ in medical terminology.
Cancers of Oesophagus (squamous or Adenocarcinomas) are fairly common in Northern mountainous tips of Iran, China, Afghanistan and Kashmir more so in the elderly.
Staging a cancer is next done by precisely imaging it with a CT scan, or MRI scan or increasingly now with a CT PET scan. Early stage cancers are treated by Oesophagectomy wherein neck, chest cavity, abdomen all need to be opened through big cuts.
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