When doctors suggested chemotherapy, Aruna said she opted out as she feared losing her hair and changes in her skin texture (Pic: Instagram/iStock)
Veteran actor Aruna Irani revealed she quietly battled breast cancer twice, not taking treatment for the deadly condition the first time. The 80-year-old, who still works actively,
“One day while shooting, I don’t know how, but I felt something, something’s not right,” she said during an interview with Lehren. Aruna, who has worked in over 500 films, said she then got her tests done, and despite an initial dismissal of "just a small lump” by her doctor, she insisted on removing it “right away”. However, the doctors suggested chemotherapy, but she opted out of it as she feared losing her hair and changes in her skin texture.
However, her cancer relapsed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was my fault since I did not get chemotherapy the first time around. This time around I took it," she said. Irani added that chemotherapy made her lose hair, which she regained soon after.
What is breast cancer?
Breast cancer is among the most common types of cancer that affect women, happening when cancerous cells in your breasts begin to multiply and become tumours. Experts say around 80 per cent of breast cancer cases are invasive – which means a tumour may spread from your breast to other areas of your body.
Breast cancer typically affects women aged 50 years and older, but it can also affect women who are younger.
Signs and symptoms of breast cancer
According to doctors, the condition affects your breasts in different ways. Some breast cancer symptoms are very distinctive, which include:
- A change in the size, shape, or contour of your breast
- A mass or lump – which feels as small as a pea.
- A lump or thickening in or near your breast or in your underarms that persists through your menstrual cycle
- A change in the look or feel of your skin on your breast nipple
- A marble-like hardened area under your skin
- A blood-stained or clear fluid discharge from your nipple
How is breast cancer treated?
Doctors say even though surgery is the primary breast cancer treatment, many other kinds of treatments are also used, which include chemotherapy. Chemotherapy for breast cancer uses drugs that target and destroy breast cancer cells – by being injected directly into a vein through a needle or taken by mouth as pills.
Chemotherapy for breast cancer frequently is used in addition to other treatments like surgery, radiation, or hormone therapy.
What is chemotherapy?
According to experts, chemotherapy increases the chance of a cure, decreases the risk of the cancer returning, alleviates symptoms from the cancer, and also helps those with cancer live longer with a better quality of life. If the cancer has recurred or spread, chemotherapy can help control breast cancer to help you live longer.
Chemotherapy is sometimes given before surgery – in a procedure known as neoadjuvant therapy or preoperative chemotherapy – to shrink larger cancers. This helps:
- Allow the surgeon the best chance of removing the cancer completely
- Enable the surgeon to remove only the cancer, rather than the entire breast
- Decrease the extent of disease in lymph nodes, allowing for less invasive lymph node surgery
- Decrease the chance the cancer will return
- Help your doctor understand how well your cancer responds to chemotherapy, which helps clarify the prognosis and the best chemotherapy drug choice.
According to doctors, the main goal of chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer is generally to improve quality and length of life rather than to cure the disease.
