Dr Santosh G Honavar, director of medical services, Centre for Sight Group of Eye Hospitals, has won the Jerry A Shields International Award for Excellence in Ocular Oncology. The award will be presented to him at the International Symposium of Ophthalmology at Guangzhou, China on November 10.
Dr Honavar currently heads the Centre of Excellence in Ophthalmic and Facial Plastic Surgery and Ocular Oncology at the Centre for Sight, Hyderabad and has established the National Retinoblastoma Foundation for the comprehensive, cost-effective, and evidence-based care of children with retinoblastoma with life, eye and vision salvage.
He is picked up for the award in recognition of his work on the management of advanced retinoblastoma with improved life, eye and vision salvage. His original clinical research has culminated in safe and cost-effective management protocols for advanced retinoblastoma that have resulted in over 95 per cent patient survival, 90 per cent eye salvage, and 85 per cent vision salvage, a paradigm change from the dismal 50 per cent mortality and 70 per cent chance for loss of an eye only a few years ago, according to a media release.
Retinoblastoma is the most common cancer of the eye in children. Its significance lies in the fact that in countries like India, it is often left undiagnosed, and hence untreated for too long, resulting in high mortality. Over 75 per cent of the children present with very advanced tumours in India, and 50 per cent of them would die, before Dr Honavar applied the existing treatment protocol, the release said.
Dr Honavar’s research has had significant impact on the diagnosis and management of retinoblastoma and its outcome. His major contributions encompass all aspects of diagnosis and management of retinoblastoma including recognition of atypical manifestations, high-dose chemoreduction to optimize visual potential, refinement of the enucleation technique, identification of histopathologic high-risk factors and adjuvant therapy to reduce the risk of metastasis, multimodal therapy for orbital retinoblastoma and identification of genetic mutations.
The work on retinoblastoma led to Dr Honavar being conferred the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award by the Government of India in 2009. But it has had other, more important consequences; it has led to the consolidation of a distinct subspecialty in eye care, ocular oncology, with students completing their training, and moving on to take this approach to care to other centres in India and elsewhere, the release added.
Source: India medical times