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Journalism of Courage
Yuvraj Singh does not have lung cancer but a malignant tumour between his lungs that commonly occurs in the testes among young men. Cycling legend Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with a more serious form of this testicular tumour in 1996.
Doctors who made the diagnosis in mid-January at Delhis Max Hospital said here today that this form of tumour,seminoma,commonly occurs in germ cells found in reproductive organs of men and women. In Yuvrajs case,it is located in the superior mediastinal region,or the upper area between his lungs,just above the heart.
On Wednesday,Yuvraj will begin the third of his nine weeks (three cycles) of chemotherapy. He has been reading Lance Armstrongs biography,going for long walks and sometimes jogging,the doctors said.
Dr Nitesh Rohatgi,a senior medical oncologist at Max Hospital who accompanied Yuvraj to the US when he started his chemotherapy sessions earlier this month,said,It is a malignant tumour called extragonadal seminoma which is very rare. It is not lung cancer,nor has the tumour spread to the lungs.
Incidence of this tumour outside the testicles is extremely rare and forms less than 1 per cent of cancers on the whole. Dr Anupama Hooda,director of the oncology department,said there was a 95 per cent chance of cure with therapy,and chances of recurrence were minimal.
Yuvrajs father,former Test cricketer Yograj Singh,lamented that his son had ignored his advice to seek treatment earlier. But doctors said he came to us at the right time.
According to the doctors,the US team was chosen because of their vast experience with sportsmen,which has seen athletes return to the field.
Doctors said age 30 is normally the outer limit for falling victim to the tumour.
Germ cell tumours occur most commonly in the testicular region,among young men in the age group of 18-30 years. The mediastinum or the area between the lungs,where Yuvrajs tumour has been diagnosed,is the second most common region,and reports about 5-10 per cent of the total germ cell tumours, Dr Vinod Raina,head of medical oncology at AIIMS,said.
Among the two types of germ cell tumours,seminoma is said to report superior cure rates. No matter what the treatment modality is,seminomas usually respond if treated at the right time. In comparison,non-seminomas have poor prognoses,and high rates of recurrence, Dr Shyam Aggarwal,senior consultant in oncology at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital,said.
While surgery is the preferred treatment modality in case of testicular tumours,in Yuvrajs case,the location of the tumour may have disallowed this option. The mediastinal region is the cavity between the lungs,which contains important chest organs including the heart,the aorta,the thymus gland,the chest portion of the trachea,the esophagus,lymph nodes and important nerves.
