Mumbai doc treats tigress for cancer

MUMBAI: It was a strange request to come Dr Purvish Parikh's way. One of Mumbai's leading oncologists and until recently the head of medical oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital, Parikh was in Bhopal to attend a medical conference when he was approached by some very worried forest officials. They wanted Parikh to have a look at Rini, an 18-year-old white tigress at Van Vihar national park.

"I was taken aback by the request," Parikh told TOI, "After all; it is not every day that you get a tigress as your patient." He was told that Rini was brought to the national park from Nandan Kanan Zoo as a four-year-old and was now suffering from cancer with a malignant tumour near her eye. In fact, she was operated on May 10 but veterinary doctors at Van Vihar said that the carcinoma had spread to Rini's lymph nodes which made her condition precarious.

Park officials had even sent a biopsy report to Dr Scott B Citino, a veterinarian from the United States, but he said that very little could be done for Rini and advised that she be put to sleep. Not wanting to give up so easily, the forest officers heard of Parikh's presence in Bhopal and rushed to him for help.

"Rini was kept in a special cage so that she could not move. I got to actually touch her and examine the cancerous growth. She was not sedated and I could see that she was in a lot of pain," Parikh said.

He suggested methotrexate, an oral chemotherapy option for Rini on a weekly basis, also making her perhaps the first wild animal in the world to be treated in such a manner for cancer. The treatment costs around Rs 5,000 per month initially but park officials said that no cost would be spared to save Rini's life.