From an Oncologist’s Diary : DNB Radiotherapy at Chitranjan National Cancer Intitute, Kolkatta

By Dr Ashwin Mohan Edited by Dr Jateen Ukrani

About Dr Ashwin Mohan And How i Know him

Radiotherapy is a interesting new branch that even intrigued me as a career option during my entrance exam days. I always wanted to do something different , something that is much less complicated than other branches . Though many people frowned at my choices, I was very sure I wanted to do either Radiotherapy or Psychiatry, but finally ended up being a Psychiatrist . Dr Ashwin mohan approached me last year to ask about DNB Radiotherapy and i was really happy to guide him into choosing DNB Radiotherapy at Chitranjan National Cancer institute,Kolkatta. He has been there for almost 1 year now and is very satisfied with it. He tells us in detail about his life and work as a budding oncologist at the institute. 

  Radiotherapy is a fascinating new branch that deals with cancer treatment but many people still are not aware about this field. With this small article I want to tell you all about my institute and Radiotherapy as a branch. Here we have 3 consultants in Radiotherapy department. There is 1 LINAC (linear accelerator),1 Cobalt machine,1 HDR brachytherapy unit and one more LINAC will be installed soon. SRS(stereotactic radiosurgery),SRT(stereotactic radiotherapy) didn’t happen after I joined but there are facilities here to do it and have been done earlier. There are 2 SRs,1JR, 4 DNB residents including myself, 3rd yr DNB one,2nd year one , 1st yr myself and another person. Every year,  2 seats for secondary DNB used to be there earlier but now it’s not there, it got stopped in 2009. We have head and neck oncology, Gynec oncology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiotherapy, paediatric oncology and pathology but DNB SS in Surgical oncology and primary DNB in Radiotherapy and Pathology. In pathology there are post diploma residents too. Anaesthesia department is also there but no DNB. Other adjacent buildings have a normal hospital where in gynaecology department they have MD and DGO candidates. 

It’s a central govt aided Regional cancer institute (RCC) so case load is huge; we have everyday OPD with huge patient load from Monday to Thursday. Timing is 10 to 5 and we are totally free after 5pm but most of the work gets over usually by 4pm.

OPD numbers are in range of 60 to 80 with around 40 inpatients spread across 3 wards. 60 to 80 in cancer OPD is huge and exposure id adequate to excel in this field. Though many people feel the opposite, Radiation exposure is nil, it is a stigma set from olden days that doctors will get radiation exposure but now everything being computer operated delivery, i can safely say nil exposure. There is a thermo luminescent badge for all employees to aassess the exposure if any.

We on call for 4 to 5 days per month but we will be called only if JR’s can’t manage. So usually no calls come for silly things unless and until it’s a dire emergency. We can do everything here, we can mange OPD, mark the areas of interest, we do brachytherapy from 1st year itself, and we also do 3D contouring here in 1st yr.  Academics are average till now but since last month we have started discussions which are still continuing hopefully we will b starting case presentation and other things soon. These discussions are held with HOD and SRs from last month onwards atleast 3 days per week.

Here there are 5 physicists and all are pass outs from BARC Mumbai. So physics is at its best here in whole Kolkata and our 1st yr subject includes Radiation physics.

Pass rate:  after centralised counselling our 3rd year DNB is first candidate to give exams this year but before that it is 100 percent and one junior consultant is a DNB from our own institute. Few candidates I have heard took 2 to 3 attempts to pass though but its those candidates who joined before entrance exams were there. DNB radiotherapy here is said to be better than  at Calcutta medical college as technically its the best here.

Stipend is 61k now after tax deduction you will get 54k .Accommodation is there but every DNB stays outside.JRs usually take accomodation here .Even DNB surgical oncology is there with 2 seats every yr . Also the fee had been made 80k in DNB institutes but here they take only 40k.

I wanted a field with no emergency  and a cool life but also wanted a clinical branch that too a non surgical one so I could have opted only dermatology or radiotherapy.I took radiotherapy after lot of research and finding that future scope of this branch is good. 

My rank was 5392 in Jan 2014 session. And my colleague was 5137.