Care for cancer!

While cancer hits a patient physically, it also impacts the mental and emotional well-being of the sufferer, which could actually hamper medical treatment. We talk to Samara Mahindra, who has created a start-up that provides much-needed personalised cancer care and support to patients.

The number of registered cancer patients in India touches an approximate 11 lakh every year while deaths recorded are seven lakh annually. To curb the fast-growing tumour that is cancer, there are many forms of therapies but cancer sufferers have a low mental and psychological state that affects their lifestyle too.Samara Mahindra is the founder of Carer, an integrative oncology start-up that treats to improve patients’ state while focusing on managing the side-effects, improving quality of life and decreasing chances of relapse for patients. She says, “Treating cancer needs a change. Amending to patient-centric approach, true and substantial change can be observed. It is important to give people back the power to heal themselves and empower them to take the right steps.”

After six years practising integrative oncology and as a cancer exercise specialist and breast cancer recovery trainer, Samara has the professional expertise needed to guide patients correctly. But, having lost her mother to cancer in 2010, and having witnessed her troubled state of mind and reduced overall quality of life ensuing from the disease before succumbing to it, Samara also understands the more emotional side to the malaise. She feels that this often impacts the outcome of the treatment.

According to her, “Dealing with cancer can have a devastating impact on the patient’s physical and psychological well-being. Ignoring these areas results in poor treatment outcomes. While the patient’s quality of life is affected, so is the effectiveness of the treatment, hence it is crucial to adopt an approach that treats the patient and not just the cancer. Unlike in the West, cancer treatment in India focuses on medication alone, ignoring lifestyle changes that could prevent relapse.”

Certifications from the US and observership in India have given her an added advantage in giving the right sort of support to sufferers. Meeting the founder of the Integrative Oncology Unit in Memorial Sloan Kettering — one of the biggest and best cancer hospitals in the world — helped her understand the subject in depth.”My focus is lifestyle management and initiating permanent lifestyle changes for the patient so that they don’t go back to a stage where the cancer occurs again and their quality of life is not hampered. My goal is  to fill the gap with supportive care, providing the patient and their family members the best chance of recovery, rehabilitation and survival. We put them on the right path to decrease chances of relapse,” Samara explains.