RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Some doc­tors in T&T still see liv­er and pan­creas can­cers as ter­mi­nal dis­eases which can­not be cured, so they fail to re­fer pa­tients for treat­ment.

This was re­vealed by Pres­i­dent of the Caribbean Chap­ter of the Amer­i­c­as He­pa­to-Pan­cre­ato-Bil­iary As­so­ci­a­tion (AH­P­BA), Pro­fes­sor Shamir Cawich.

The pres­i­dent and his team, which in­cludes Vice Pres­i­dent Dr Ravi Ma­haraj and Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Dr Am­miel Ar­ra, host­ed a meet­ing on Sat­ur­day to share sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge on Pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer, Liv­er Tu­mours and Colon Can­cer.

Dr Ar­ra, who con­cep­tu­alised and or­ga­nized the in­ter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence, said it was meant to fur­ther lo­cal, re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion among med­ical peers.

Pro­fes­sor Cawich, who has led the de­vel­op­ment of La­paro­scop­ic Liv­er and Pan­cre­at­ic Surgery in T&T, said the meet­ing was geared at im­prov­ing the un­der­stand­ing of dis­eases of the liv­er, pan­creas and bile ducts.

Ex­press­ing the need for col­lab­o­ra­tion in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, Cawich said more should be done to cre­ate aware­ness of on­go­ing med­ical re­search.

“Many per­sons in T&T, and that in­cludes some doc­tors, still see liv­er and pan­creas can­cers as a ter­mi­nal di­ag­no­sis and so, pa­tients are not re­ferred for treat­ment. In­creased ed­u­ca­tion is need­ed to re­mind doc­tors that this is no longer the case in 2021,” Pro­fes­sor Cawich said.

He added: “These con­di­tions can now safe­ly be treat­ed in T&T with a com­bi­na­tion of surgery and chemother­a­py for good sur­vival re­sults.”

He ex­plained that the op­er­a­tions to treat pan­creas and liv­er can­cers were avail­able in the pub­lic sys­tem in the ma­jor Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ties, as well as the pri­vate sec­tor hos­pi­tals.

“Surgery on the Liv­er and the Pan­creas are among the most de­mand­ing surg­eries for pa­tients and tech­ni­cal­ly com­plex for sur­geons. In an at­tempt to im­prove care for pa­tients who need op­er­a­tions of the liv­er and pan­creas, re­gion­al spe­cial­ists formed a pro­fes­sion­al as­so­ci­a­tion,” Pro­fes­sor Cawich ex­plained.

He not­ed that in 2015, the group was for­mal­ly rec­og­nized by the world as­so­ci­a­tion, known as the Amer­i­c­as He­pa­to-Pan­cre­ato-Bil­iary As­so­ci­a­tion (AH­P­BA).

“The Caribbean Chap­ter of the AH­P­BA in­cludes a pan­el of Spe­cial­ist Liv­er and Pan­creas Sur­geons from across the Caribbean.  Sev­er­al hun­dred med­ical pro­fes­sion­als from many coun­tries across the globe, in­clud­ing the USA, UK, Aus­tralia, Cana­da, In­dia, Brazil, Turkey, Chile and Nepal, at­tend­ed the con­fer­ence,” he added.

Be­cause of the work of the As­so­ci­a­tion, there has been on­go­ing re­search in­to can­cers of the liv­er and pan­creas, Pro­fes­sor Cawich added.

“We have al­so been eval­u­at­ing pa­tient out­comes af­ter surgery for these con­di­tions. This re­search has shown that the out­comes af­ter surgery to treat these can­cers in T&T is com­pa­ra­ble to any oth­er high-vol­ume hos­pi­tal across the world. But still, there is much to be done,” he said.

He al­so lament­ed that there was still a lack of aware­ness of the symp­toms and signs of pan­creas and liv­er can­cers.

“As a re­sult, many pa­tients in T&T present in late stages of the dis­ease. An in­crease in aware­ness and screen­ing for high-risk pa­tients may help the na­tion to de­tect these can­cers at an ear­li­er stage,” he said.

Pro­fes­sor Cawich al­so com­mend­ed the Caribbean Chap­ter of the AH­P­BA for its in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to liv­er and pan­creas surgery in T&T, say­ing with col­lab­o­ra­tion, more can be achieved.

Among those at­tend­ing the meet­ing were Spe­cial­ist Liv­er and Pan­creas Sur­geons from the Caribbean, In­dia, Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca and Cana­da.