It is the post-lunch session and Dr Abhishek Shankar, assistant professor at the Department of Preventive Oncology at AIIMS, is counselling a 60-year-old woman undergoing treatment for breast cancer at the institute. The woman, who was earlier being treated at a private hospital in Delhi, is not only undergoing treatment here, but AIIMS doctors are also counselling her about the “why and how” of cancer.

The woman is the 12th patient who has enrolled for “genetic counselling” at the institute’s Familial and High Risk Cancer Clinic at Dr B R A Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital at AIIMS.

The clinic, started a week ago, aims to teach patients and family members about self-examination techniques, early detection and safe practices to prevent of cancer. It will focus on the most common cancers in the country — of the breast, cervical, mouth and lung.

“She is the second person in her family who has been diagnosed with cancer. Certain types of cancer run in some families. Cancer risk assessment is important to understand a person’s risk of developing certain types of cancer. In this case, where cancer has already been diagnosed, we need to counsel them on treatment and follow-up care. More importantly, it has to be explained that cancer may be passed from parent to child — and here we counsel them about options for screening and management of cancer risk,” said Dr Shankar.

Also Read | Not enough rooms for doctors, queues at AIIMS dept get longer

“After prevention, early detection in stages I and II is the second-best approach. If detected early, with proper treatment, a cure of almost 80 per cent of the patients can be achieved. This can be done by undergoing regular health check-ups and by understanding warning signals and reporting to the doctor,” said Dr G K Rath, chief, BRAIRCH, AIIMS.

Dr Shankar, the co-in-charge of the clinic, said in a phase-wise manner, the priority of the clinic will be to screen the staff and family members at AIIMS. “The initiative is to provide cancer patients and their family members an opportunity to know the risk of occurrence of primary and secondary cancers. We will also start cervical cancer vaccination drive,” said Dr Shankar.