Glimpses 2009-2010.pdf - LV Prasad Eye Institute

in the pathology laboratory, and statisticians—
searched, Holmes-like, for clues that would lead
them to understand the risk factors that led to
tumor progression.
“What followed was an intense period of dialogue—
internally, mong clinicians and pathologists,
externally, with specialist retinoblastoma groups—
and we began to see that advanced retinoblastoma
had to be treated differently, unlike the protocols
commonly used in the west, where the cases
presented much earlier.” The new protocols for
advanced retinoblastoma now help salvage eyes and
vision.
“The question we are asking is, what makes it more
likely for a cancer cell to spread from one part of
the body (in this case, the eye) to another What
Dr Santosh Honavar with a patient
can we do to control that spread” Dr Honavar
and his team then came up with a pre-emptive adjuvant therapy, where they instituted a treatment
regimen based on an understanding of risk factors gained from the retrospective study. “As a direct
consequence of this adjuvant therapy we have seen a substantial reduction in the number of children
who die,” he says.
“The climate at LVPEI is particularly conducive to this sort of innovation in patient care,” says
Dr Honavar. The institute’s structure, combining basic and clinical research with an active public health
and epidemiology program, facilitates a sharing of perspectives, he adds. “This has led to a higher level
of internal referral, with more children being identified at a stage when they can be helped—to save
their vision, and their life.”
The work on retinoblastoma led to Dr Honavar’s being named as one of the winners of India’s most
prestigious award for young scientists—the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award. But it has had other,
more important consequences; it has led to the consolidation of a distinct subspecialty in eye care,
ocular oncology, with students completing their training at the Jasti V Ramanamma Children’s Eye Care
Centre, and moving on to take this approach to care to other centres in India and elsewhere. “I chose
to come to LVPEI for my postgraduate training in oculoplasty because of what I had seen and heard of
Dr Honavar’s work,” says Dr PM Fairooz, a resident. “He’s been an amazing mentor.”
Ocular oncology as a specialization has
gained tremendously from the work put
in by Dr Honavar and his team, and the
same culture permeates our centres in
Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam. The
Miriam Hyman Children’s Eye Care Centre
in Bhubaneswar added a new pediatric
cancer service this year, which will focus on
early detection and care.
Mr Prasanna Acharya, Minister for Health and Family
Welfare, Govt. of Orissa (centre), Dr Taraprasad Das and
Dr Sujata Das at the pediatric oncology unit
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