Aruna Irani's battle with breast cancer and the question of chemotherapy

India Today

4 hours ago

Veteran actress Aruna Irani recently surprised fans by revealing that she quietly battled breast cancer not once, but twice.Irani first discovered she had breast cancer in 2015, after feeling unwell on a shoot. 'I don't know how, but I felt something,' she recalled. A doctor initially brushed it off as a small lump, but Irani insisted on having it removed. When advised to take chemotherapy, she declined.advertisementShe said, "The doctor told me that I have to undergo chemotherapy clinically. Chemotherapy wasn't that advanced back then. So your skin turned black, and you would experience hair loss. I asked the doctor for another way, and he told me to take medicine daily. That went on for five years."
Chemotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses strong medicines to kill fast-growing cancer cells in the body. It can be given as pills or through injections. While it kills cancer cells, it can also affect healthy cells, which may cause side effects like hair loss, tiredness, or nausea.Her decision, however, came with consequences.In March 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, her cancer returned. This time, Irani followed the medical advice and underwent chemotherapy. 'It was my fault because I did not opt for chemotherapy the first time. This time around, I took it,' she said.
Chemotherapy uses strong medicines to kill cancer cells in the body. ()
advertisementHer story, shared in an interview with Lehren Retro podcast, opens up an important health conversation: can some cancers be treated without chemotherapy?WHEN IS CHEMOTHERAPY AVOIDABLE?Irani's journey is not unique. With advances in precision oncology, many patients today have the option of skipping chemotherapy, depending on the type and stage of their cancer.'Definitely not all breast cancers require chemotherapy,' Dr. Mandeep Singh Malhotra, founder of the Art of Healing Cancer Centre told IndiaToday.in. 'Breast cancer is a heterogeneous group, with multiple varieties.'Hormone-positive breast cancers, which make up 40–50% of breast cancer cases in India, are often driven by hormones like estrogen and progesterone.For these, hormone therapy (like anti-estrogen pills) can be an effective treatment, especially in early-stage cases where the cancer hasn't spread.'In such cases, we can run genomic tests to assess the risk of recurrence. If the cancer is low-risk, chemotherapy can often be avoided. These patients can be treated with surgery and hormone therapy alone, which helps them maintain a good quality of life," Dr. Malhotra explained.THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONALISATIONDr. Saphalta Baghmar, Program Head for Breast Cancer at Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, agreed that the era of "one-size-fits-all" treatment is over.'Thanks to molecular diagnostics, we now know breast cancer is a spectrum of subtypes. Chemotherapy is required in aggressive types like triple-negative or HER2-positive cancers, but for hormone receptor-positive cancers, we can often safely skip it, especially when genomic tests show low recurrence scores,' she told IndiaToday.in.
If detected early, many hormone-driven breast cancers can be treated without chemotherapy. ()
Tests like Oncotype DX and MammaPrint help oncologists evaluate whether a patient can avoid chemo without compromising the treatment's effectiveness.IS RECURRENCE POSSIBLE?However, doctors warned that even with these treatments, recurrence is still a risk.'Yes, breast cancer can come back, whether or not chemotherapy was used. Recurrence depends on how advanced the cancer was at diagnosis, its biology, and how the patient responded to initial treatment. That's why follow-up is so critical," Dr. Baghmar said.As more women face breast cancer diagnoses, especially in India where rates are steadily rising, understanding whether chemotherapy is necessary is becoming an important part of the conversation."Today, beating cancer isn't just about surviving. It's about surviving well, and science is helping us do just that," Dr. Baghmar said.If detected early, many hormone-driven breast cancers can be treated without chemotherapy. But personalised care, regular monitoring, and awareness are essential for long-term survival.Must Watch