Activities of the Foundation
Brain & Spine Cancer (Tumors) and Traumatic injuries to the Brain and Spine
World brain tumour day is observed on 8th of June every year since 2000. This day was first observed by German Brain Tumour Association. This is a non-profit organisation which raises public awareness and educates people about brain tumour. The incidence of central nervous system (CNS) tumors in India ranges from 5 to 10 per 100,000 population with an increasing trend. Metastatic brain tumors occur when cancer located in another organ of the body spreads to the brain. 40% of all cancers in the body spread to the brain. Brain and central nervous system tumors are also the second most common cancers in children, accounts for about 26% of childhood cancers. Government of India has introduced National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular diseases & Stroke with the objectives of prevention, screening, early detection, diagnosis and treatment including palliative care in end stage for the major non communicable diseases.
What is a Brain Tumour?
Unnecessary growth of cells when body doesn’t require them is known as tumour. A brain tumour occurs when abnormal cells are produced within any part of brain. There are two main types of tumours namely, malignant and benign (non-malignant) tumours. Brain tumours can occur at any age. The exact cause of brain tumour is not clear but the most well-known environmental risk factor for the development of brain tumours is exposure to radiation, especially due to previous cancer treatment. The symptoms of brain tumour depend on their size, type, and location.
MGF thrives to incorporate funding for poor patients with Brain & Spine tumor’s, Head & Spine injuries due to road traffic accidents, emergency surgeries, primarily for the service of unaffordable population in Mumbai and Maharashtra. Mumbai is a hub with multiple superspeciality hospitals in both public and private sectors. There is a huge influx of patients in Mumbai from entire Maharashtra and also surrounding states.
We have a huge population due to which the public hospital setups have been pushed to the limit. Majority of the needy population cannot even afford basic medical care. Brain & Spine Cancer (tumors) /Injuries, can lead to complete loss of work due to seizures, weakness in upper and lower limbs, etc. Not all but sizable number of brain tumor survivors need to undergo further augmentative treatment in the form or Radiation and Chemotherapy which is a prolonged treatment for months together, this in itself is also a financial hole in their not so big pockets. Patients secondary to road traffic accidents can have head or spine or both injuries and many a times these warrant emergency surgery as well as these patients usually have a stormy postoperative course or a prolonged ICU stay, followed by prolonged nursing care, physiotherapy etc, to get them back on their feet if they can.
Thus summing it up the overall main thrust is to support these type of patients, provide them with state of the art services and make them independent again to support their families.
MGF will take an initial small step to help these people by providing them with very good services which they can otherwise not afford and improve their quality of life and in certain cases of head injury by saving their lives too. Just to give you a brief overview these are the various types of Brain and Spine surgeries/tumors and pathologies that patients have.
BRAIN
1. Skull Base Neurosurgery
2. Neuro-Oncosurgery (Tumor’s)
3. Pediatric Neurosurgery
4. Functional Neurosurgery
5. Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery
6. Endoscopic Neurosurgery
7. Infection and related surgeries
8. Craniovertebral Junction Surgery (Tumors/ Trauma/ Congenital conditions)
9. Radiosurgery (Gammaknife and Conventional Radiosurgery)
SPINE
1. Craniovertebral junction
2. Cervical disc surgeries and fixation.
3. Thoracic surgeries and fixation.
4. Lumbar disc surgeries and fixation.
Types of Surgeries
Brain tumor surgeries
Glioma Low - High grade, Astrocytoma, Oligodendroglioma, Medulloblastoma, Choroid plexus papilloma, All grade of Ependymoma and Meningiomas , Schwannoma, Neurofibroma, Pituitary adenoma, Craniopharyngioma, Jugular foramen tumors.
Trauma
Emergency and Elective (Planned)Surgery for Extra/subdural hematoma, Contusions (bleed inside the brain), Decompressive craniectomies.
Spine Surgeries done for spinal tumors
Schwannoma, Meningioma, Neurofibromas, Arachnoid Cysts, Congenital Spinal Lesions, Lipoma, Liopmyelomeningocele, Spinal Dermoid Cysts, Arachnoid and Epidermoid Cysts.
Congenial lesions:
Arachnoid cysts, Epidermoid and Dermoid cysts, Neurenteric cysts.
Elective Surgery
for Subacute and Chronic subdural hematoma..
Minimally Invasive
Stereotactic procedures, Brain biopsies, Endoscopic procedures.
Epilepsy Surgery
Corpus Callosotomy, Resections, Vagal Nerve stimulation (VNS)
Cervical/Thoracic/Lumbar decompression
For tumors as well as degenerative diseases (disc prolapse, stenosis) which need fixation for instability arising out of infection and trauma.
Infection
Meningitis, Tuberculosis, Abscess (Bacterial, Tubercular, Fungal), VP shunt.
Cerebrovascular
Aneurysms, AVM, Dural AV fistula, Brain hemorrhage, ST-MC anastomosis, Carotid Endartrectomy, MoyaMoya disease, Cavernoma, Hemangioma.
Craniovertebral Pathologies
Basilar Invagination, Atlanto-Axial Dislocations, other CVjn infective pathologies like TB and RA, Chiari Malformation.
Pediatric Neurosurgery
VP shunt, Myelomeningocele, Spinal dysraphism, Shunt, Tethered cord, Chiari Malformation, Spina Bifida, Chiari Malformation, Pediatric brain tumors.
What are the available treatments for Brain tumour??
- Surgery
- Radiotherapy
- Chemotherapy
- Steroids
- Anti-seizure medication
- Ventricular peritoneal shunt for raised intracranial pressure.
Age adjusted incidence rates for cancers of nervous system by sex and year for various registries are presented in. The average age adjusted incidence rates along with its annual percentage change for CNS cancers by sex for various registries are presented in. For studying predominance of CNS cancers it’s ranking at starting period (1982-83) and at the end of period (2002-03) in both the sexes are compared for each registry. For Mumbai registry cancers of CNS are ranked 9th in both the sexes in both the periods. For Bangalore and Chennai registries it ranked 9th in males and 8th in females in both the periods. At Delhi registry it’s ranking is 9th in males and 7th in females in both the periods. For Bhopal registry it also ranked 9th in males in both the periods and could not occupy. The average age adjusted incidence rates for CNS cancers are ranged in males from 2.53 (Chennai registry) to 4.14 (Delhi registry) while in females it ranged from 1.46 (Bhopal registry) to 2.66 (Delhi registry). There has been increasing trend in incidence rates in both the sexes of CNS cancers were observed in all the registries except Delhi. The increase in incidence for Bhopal registry and decrease in incidence for Delhi registry was not statistically significant. More than 3%, statistically significant increase in age adjusted incidence rates of CNS cancers were noted in both the sexes in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore registries.”
Need Of Brain And Spine Problem Awareness
The estimated population in Mumbai is approximately more than 20 million with about 41.3% of the population staying in slums that amounts to 9 million. The population density of Mumbai is approximately 73,000 per square mile, which makes Mumbai one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Because land is at such a premium, residents of Mumbai frequently live in cheap, cramped housing far from work, leading to long commutes on the city’s busy mass transit system. Such high density predominantly due to a huge migrant population. By 2030, Mumbai will have an estimated population of 28 million. These estimates mean that the 6th most populous city in the world would move up the list to become the 4th most populous.
Brain & Spine Cancer (tumors) /Injuries, can lead to complete loss of work due to seizures, weakness in upper and lower limbs, etc. Not all but sizable number of brain tumor survivors need to undergo further augmentative treatment in the form or Radiation and Chemotherapy which is a prolonged treatment for months together, this in itself is also a financial hole in their not so big pockets. Post head injury patients have a stormy postoperative or an ICU stay which necessitates them to undergo prolonged nursing care, physiotherapy etc.
Strengths of this project
• This idea was conceived by Dr Warade, for the first time in India, and once the project is incepted many would get benefit from the same.
• MGF provided specialized state of the art hospital services for these patients.
• Self-sustaining project in long term.
• Job opportunities.
• Research Training & Education of staff and patients.
• Dr Warade is already actively involved in this kind of philanthropic work for the past 7 years.
• Project has been evaluated by CSR Consultants.
Opportunities due to this project
• Quality health Care
• One if its kind in India
• International organizations and Health institution collaboration
• Centre with Scope for Research
• This pilot can be replicated anywhere in India and Abroad where there is a need for the same.
• Opportunity to work with State health societies.
• Possible opportunity for expansion of medical services on a similar line to African countries with tie ups for delivering premium medical services for the needy neuro patients.
T-Teens
A uniquely designed program for orientation & education of teenagers and there families on menarche, provision of sanitary pads, handling the related social issues & stigma.
An exclusive brand ‘T teens’ sanitary napkins specially tailored for young girls who attain menarche will be launched.
In our country citing various reasons which are not the scope of the matter mentioned here, menarche is grossly neglected in our country and is the desperate need of the hour. There are countless young girls out there who attain menarche, but there is a lot of ignorance, anxiety, fear, shame attached to this life changing event in a young girls life. In addition to making things worse in certain pockets of the society it is considered as a taboo thus making life difficult for girls or young females, even when they have their regular periods by none other than their own family member’s thus making this even more difficult. Most importantly at this age it also affects the psyche of the patient.Surpisingly this problem is widespread and affects not only the lower but also the higher socio-economic strata too.We at MGF strongly feel that ‘T teens’ is the need of the hour. We would specifically aim at creating awareness for the girl as well as her family and educating them by making educational videos, schematic step by step diagrams, keeping lectures, and of course providing specifically designed sanitary pads free of charge/or nominal price to these girls.
T Teens will be simultaneously launched in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Kerala, eventually pan India.
Pathology Labs & Day Care Centres
MFG would set-up of day care centres with supervised staff for trivial health issues and administration of injections, blood pressure and diabetes evaluation.
MGF would also set-up of pathology labs in slum pockets of Mumbai, for free evaluation and blood testing for the needy population residing in slums and lower category housing.
We usually see on an average whenever anyone in the family gets ill, secondary to any viral illness, malaria, dengue, typhoid, gastroenteritis, food poisoning or other endemic problems persisting in that pocket of land, basic blood tests with additional specific blood tests are always done to arrive at a diagnosis. The cost of this in any reputed lab will be significant enough for anyone daily wage worker to not afford. Also they don’t prefer to go to public hospitals set ups for the same as its very time consuming process and often the results get delayed. These people may need to get admitted for a short time in day care centre set ups, for saline infusion if they are dehydrated or for an intravenous injection to decrease the fever or to get a simple tetanus injection in an event of an injury.
MGF would set up daycare centres with staff comprising a lab technician. Day care centres would have facility to collect blood samples, would have one registered nurse, one attendant and a doctor. MGF would also offer round the clock services for the same. This will ensure prompt diagnosis and initiation of first line of treatment in the neighbourhood itself where most of the trivial problems can be taken care of and the patients get referred to a higher centre later as required.