Pune: Dr Sumit Shah, consultant cancer surgeon at Prolife Cancer Centre, Pune, was presented with a national award of ‘Promising Surgical Oncologist of the Year 2019’ at the 7th Global Healthcare Excellence Awards, 2019 and Summit held in New Delhi recently.

Dr Shah received the award at the hands of Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and a Member of the 17th Lok Sabha and Padmashee awardee Dr JK Singh.

Dr Shah said that cancer is the second leading cause of death in India.

“In 2018, the count of cancer patients in India was around 22.5 lakh. Every year, about 11.5 lakh new patients are detected with the disease. Every year, almost 7.84 lakh deaths occur due to cancer. Major causes of cancer are tobacco, Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in females and changing lifestyle and obesity. In the west, the majority of cancers are detected early and are cured but in India, majority of the patients are detected in the late stage. To overcome this, we need awareness,” said Dr Shah.

He has extensively worked on cancer awareness and tobacco de-addiction and has delivered lectures in schools and colleges on harmful effects of tobacco. He has also been conducting free OPD for tobacco de-addiction since past 5 years.