In Tamil Nadu, a calling card to strike at cancer   Premium

Villupuram Cancer Education and Screening Centre provides timely diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients in Tamil Nadu.

Rukmani*, 52, does not respond when asked about her cancer diagnosis and treatment. With her medical file in hand, she and her husband, Sivabalan*, a welder, wait outside the Villupuram Cancer Education and Screening Centre at the Government Hospital, for her periodic check-up. In their nearly 10-minute long conversation, not once do the couple mention the word “cancer” but Sivabalan is keen to talk. He recalls every minute detail, as he wants others to know and be aware of what early detection and prompt treatment could mean for patients and their families. 

“I didn’t even tell her about her diagnosis until she was admitted for treatment, knowing that she would get scared,” says Sivabalan. It all started, he says, nearly five years ago when Rukmani, who used to work as an agricultural labourer, began to experience abdominal pain. As the pain grew severe over a six-month period, she went to private clinics where she was mostly treated for ulcers, he recalls. “No tests were done, but they gave me medications for pain relief. I was finding it difficult to bend, to eat and had severe lower abdominal pain,” Rukmani quietly adds. 

It was in 2018 when a team from the Villupuram Cancer Education and Screening Centre arrived at their village in Koothampakkam panchayat, Kandamangalam block, and organised a screening camp, that their journey towards finding an answer to Rukmani’s pain began. A doctor and nurse knocked on their door, asking her to come for a check-up at the camp. She was diagnosed with early cervical cancer, and was treated by doctors of the Cancer Institute (WIA), Adyar in Chennai.

Since then, she has been on regular follow-ups with the team in Villupuram. “I also regularly receive calls from the team and they inquire about my health,” she says. 

Nearly six kilometres away, in a quiet neighbourhood of the Thanthai Periyar Transport Employees Nagar in Kandamanadi panchayat, Koliyanur block, live Kamatchi* and her husband. A breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 42 came as a rude shock to the couple. It took them nearly six months and repeated house visits and phone calls to seek medical care. “The year was 2016. I was diagnosed with breast cancer following a screening camp here. The treatment -- surgery followed by chemotherapy and several cycles of radiation -- took almost six months. I was always dizzy, unable to eat and had bouts of vomiting but my husband did not leave my side,” says Kamatchi. Even as her eyes well up, Kamatchi says sge is keen on staying strong: “We should fight cancer without fear, and getting treated on time is important.”

Cancer diagnosis may have changed the lives of Rukmani and Kamatchi but without the organised screening that ensured timely diagnosis and treatment, it would be difficult to say might have happened to the two women from Villupuram district. 

The Villupuram Cancer Education and Screening Centre is an initiative of the Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai, a non-profit cancer treatment and research centre. Cancer Institute is also a Regional Centre for Cancer Research and Treatment and recognized as the State Cancer Institute, the apex body in Tamil Nadu. Over the past seven years, including the Covid-19 pandemic disruption of 18 months, the team from Cancer Institute’s satellite cancer screening centre in Villupuram made inroads into taking population-based breast, cervical and oral cancer screening to the people, reaching a total of 61,799 women in Villupuram taluk alone, registering a net coverage of 53.2%.