Medical oncology department in KMC Manipal had its beginning under the leadership of Professor Joseph Thomas in 1993 as a division under the department of General Medicine. The independent Department of Medical Oncology was established in the year 2013 and now is a full-fledged department providing various training programs to students. The department provides oncological services to the patients from all the neighboring districts and across the state. The medical oncology department provides systemic therapy for all malignancies, both solid and hematological, in addition to the initial evaluation and survivorship care for cancer patients. The department is now an integral part of the Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Care Center (MCCCC) and works in close coordination with the other oncological specialties like radiation oncology, surgical oncology, palliative and supportive care and nuclear medicine to provide comprehensive personalized and holistic state of the art oncological care for all patients with cancer. The department offers autologous bone marrow transplant facilities also, the first center in coastal and central Karnataka to initiate the same. It is the only center with the facility in the district. The department considers curable cancers as the utmost priority; multiple charitable funds and government and philanthropic assistance programs are used to support patients with curable cancers.

The patient footfall in the department has always been high, with a monthly registration of around 2000 patients per month, with around 100 new patients. The department has outpatient and daycare chemotherapy services six-days a week. In addition, the admission facility for patients includes isolation wards for induction chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant facility and chemotherapy facilities. The department has nearly 400 admissions per month and administers all types of systemic treatment including newer treatment modalities like targeted and immunotherapy. Innovative and resource-appropriate treatment adaptations like oral metronomic chemotherapy protocols are also used in the department. With newer developments in precision oncology, all the department faculty are now trained in precision medicine, and are fully cognizant of the need for personalised treatment to cancer patients. The department also provides post-treatment care in the form of survivor follow-up, with timely addressing of the survivorship issues. The department also works in coordination with the Manipal Assisted Reproduction Center for oncofertility concerns of our adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients.

The chemotherapy facilities include both outpatient and inpatient administration, including complicated chemotherapy protocols like high-dose methotrexate and dose-adjusted R-EPOCH which require stringent monitoring. The department delivers nearly 1500 systemic therapies per month as day-care or inpatient facilities. In addition, the department performs procedures like bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, lumbar punctures, ascitic tapping, pleural tapping and also handles chemo-port care and supports in HIPEC treatment.

The department is active in the Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards and the faculty moderate the hematological malignancies and Thoracic oncology board as per the national and international guidelines. The department has actively participated in social activities in providing awareness about various cancers and in screening programs in the community. The department conducts World cancer Day, Breast cancer awareness month and various similar cancer related activities every year to encourage patient and public participation.

Oncology is a rapidly expanding field with path-breaking research avenues opening up in every subspecialty. Our center is an ESMO accredited comprehensive cancer care center with multiple ongoing national and international collaborative research projects. We also have an allied Lifesciences section and basic sciences center within our University, allowing interdepartmental cooperation for applied clinical research projects in a wide variety of topics.

 The vision of the department is to provide evidence-based treatment in oncology, in a resource-appropriate manner.

Courses

Ongoing DM Medical Oncology residency program

Nursing: The department also provides inputs for the Short term course in oncology nursing, for additional training of nursing staff.  

Dr. Aju Mathew has been an adjunct faculty in the department and is presently working as a consultant medical oncologist at the Ernakulum Medical Centre, Kerala. He has been constantly participating in the various CMEs and conferences held in Manipal.

1. Ms Prathika Sherigar- 2019

2. S Mangaiyarkarasi - 2021

https://manipal.edu/mu/academics/phd.html

The department has outpatient and day-care chemotherapy services six-days a week. In addition to providing systemic therapy for all solid and haematological malignancies, the department also has an active bone marrow transplant unit for autologous bone marrow transplant (completed nearly 50 procedures to date). 

The department is actively involved in many Phase III and Phase IV trials

1. Udupa K, Thomas J, Udupa CB, Binu VS, Sharan P. Treatment of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia with Single Agent Arsenic Trioxide: Experience from a Tertiary Care Center in India. Indian J Hematol Blood Transfus. 2017 Mar;33(1):45-48. doi: 10.1007/s12288-016-0668-9. Epub 2016 Mar 24. PubMed PMID: 28194055; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5280854.

2. Udupa KS, Rajendranath R, Sagar T, Thomas J. Differential Toxicities of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in the Management of Metastatic Lung Cancer. Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol. 2017 Jan-Mar;38(1):15-17. doi: 10.4103/0971-5851.203502. PubMed PMID: 28469331; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5398099

3. Udupa CBK, Koteshwar P, Udupa KS. Bleomycin in Hodgkin's Lymphoma - A Boon or a Bane? - A Retrospective Study of Bleomycin Pulmonary Toxicity in Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Indian J Palliat Care. 2019 Oct-Dec;25(4):523-526. doi: 10.4103/IJPC.IJPC_107_19. PubMed PMID: 31673206; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6812434

4. Pai A, Sivanandh B, Udupa K. Quality of sleep in patients with cancer: A cross-sectional observational study. Indian J Palliat Care 2020; 26:9-12

5. Bajpai J, Mailankody S, Nair R, et al. Gender climate in Indian oncology: national survey report. ESMO Open 2020;5:e000671. doi:10.1136/ esmoopen-2020-000671

6. Udupa CBK, Udupa KS, Pai A, Sherigar P. Cytogenetics and Revised International Staging System (R-ISS): Risk Stratification in Multiple myeloma - A Retrospective Study in Indian Population. Iran J Pathol. 2020;15(3):182-188. doi:10.30699/ijp.2020.105128.2078

7. Mailankody S, Rao SR. "PENS" approach for breaking bad news-a short and sweet way! Support Care Cancer. 2021 Mar;29(3):1157-1159.

8. Tholeti P, Uppangala S, Bhat V, Udupa KS, Kumar V, Patted S, Natarajan P, Spears N, Kalthur G, Woodruff TK, Adiga SK. Oncofertility: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Barriers Among Indian Oncologists and Gynecologists. J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol. 2021 Feb;10(1):71-77. doi: 10.1089/jayao.2020.0034. Epub 2020 May 22. PubMed PMID: 32456519.

9. Mailankody S, Kumar VS, Khan SA, Banavali SD, Bajpai J. Resource-appropriate selection of osteosarcoma treatment protocols in low- and middle-income countries. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2021 Dec 31:e29540. doi: 10.1002/pbc.29540. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34971016.

10. Kolesar J, Peh S, Thomas L, Baburaj G, Mukherjee N, Kantamneni R, Lewis S, Pai A, Udupa KS, Kumar An N, Rangnekar VM, Rao M. Integration of liquid biopsy and pharmacogenomics for precision therapy of EGFR mutant and resistant lung cancers. Mol Cancer. 2022 Feb 24;21(1):61. doi: 10.1186/s12943-022-01534-8. Review. PubMed PMID: 35209919; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8867675

https://eprints.manipal.edu/view/subjects/MON.html

The department received the ESMO accreditation on behalf of the Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Care Center at ESMO 2019 held at Spain.

Address:

Google map      :  https://goo.gl/maps/KbNJ52EKDaB3JeYv9

Email                :  medoncology.kmc@manipal.edu

Phone number  : +91- 820- 2922157