Building Hope in India

Dr. V. Shanta is executive chairman of The Cancer Institute in Chennai.

She went to medical school at a time when most Indian women did not pursue professional careers. She never married or raised a family, devoting her life instead to medicine. Independent and idealistic, she sought to help the sick and dying people she saw languishing on city streets, with nowhere to turn for help. She took up the fight against cancer under difficult circumstances and sought to bring hope and healing to the most unfortunate inhabitants of her country. Today, Dr V Shanta looks back on a career spanning 50 years, a career during which she helped to build one of the largest, most comprehensive cancer centers in India. The Cancer Institute's mission was in its earliest beginnings the same as it is today: to bring to the poorest of the poor the most refined scientific technology and the best patient care possible.

Shanta went to work for India's first female medical graduate, Muthalakshmi Reddy, in a 12-bed thatch-roofed hospital where she and a single colleague worked in 12-hour shifts. Much of what she learned about cancer treatment she taught herself. Her earliest patients came to the hospital in dire straits. "Everyone was in dismal condition," Shanta recalls. "There were very few we could cure. The treatment we could offer was inadequate and most were in advanced stages of cancer."

"Today, we do see many patients being cured," says Shanta. "That is one satisfaction. It is also satisfying to know that we have trained so many dedicated professionals. But the road is never-ending. Still we are working with very limited resources. In the grand scheme, we have done so little, and there is still so much to be done."