Cancer patients be wary of quacks
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 24
Ms Manjit Kaur, a local resident, felt an almond-sized nodule in her left breast and consulted two surgeons who advised her surgery. Her relatives, however, took her to a practitioner of “electropathy”, who advised massage. She was given tablets each day. For this, he charged her Rs 7,500. The “doctor” discharged the patient after keeping her for 10 days in his clinic. The patient and her family were given strict instructions not to consult any other doctor for second opinion. The woman spent more than Rs 20,000 on the six-month treatment. By then the nodule had grown rapidly.

She then visited Dewan Hospital where she underwent surgery for modified radical mastectomy as the cancer had invaded the adjacent axilla.

Dr Narrotam Dewan working in the hospital said “Multimode treatment is the accepted norm of management these days. This involves surgery, post-operative radio therapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy. Cancer spreads by invading adjacent organs. The second important mode of its spread is facilitated by the flow of blood and lymph. Cancerous cells break from the main nodule and flow with a stream of blood or lymph to reach different parts of the body.”

Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana lads enter semis
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, July 24
Holders Hoshiarpur and hosts Ludhiana scripted authentic victories over their opponents Patiala and Gurdaspur, respectively, to book berths in the semi-finals on the second day of the 16th Punjab State Sub-Junior (u-16) Football Championship being held at the Punjab Agricultural University grounds here today.

Hoshiarpur lads faced no resistance from Patiala and won the match with 6-0. Midway through the first half, Jagdev Singh put Hoshiarpur into the lead and Sandeep Singh consolidated the lead a few minutes later. Jagdev Singh struck again in the 34th minute to further cement the lead 3-0.

After changing the ends, Hoshiarpur boys continued to exert pressure over Patiala players and their tactics further yielded results as Sukhvinder Singh found the target in the 47th minute of the encounter. Iqbal Singh and Daljit Singh pumped in two more goals to complete the rout 6-0.

In the second quarter-final, hosts Ludhiana, helped by Amandeep Singh’s brace,outplayed Gurdaspur 3-0 to assure themselves a place among the last four. After the first barren half, Sukhjinder Singh opened the account for Ludhiana in the 50th minute and seven minutes later, Amandeep Singh made it 2-0. With just 10 minutes to go for the long whistle, Amandeep Singh again piereced through the visitors’ defence line to read it 3-0.

The third quarter-final was played between last year’s losing finalists Kapurthala and Fatehgarh Sahib in which the former survived some anxious moments before romping home victorious 2-1 to enter the semi-final.

Fatehgarh lads sprang a surprise in the 31st minute of the encounter when Surinder Singh found Kapurthala’s custodian on the wrong foot and placed the ball into the net much to the chagrin of the goalkeeper.

Stunned by this reverse, Fatehgarh lads went all out for the equaliser but they fumbled on atleast three occasions. With five minutes into the second session, Kapurthala’s Harjit Singh managed to dribble past rival’s defenders and kicked a powerful shot which breezed past the goalkeeper. The match winner came off Daljit Singh boot in the last minutes of the cliff hanger.

In the fourth quarter-final, Nawanshahr prevailed over Jalandhar 2-0 to advance into the semi-final. Harjit Singh (20th minute) and Paramajit Singh (34th minute) were the architects of Nawanshahr’s win .

In the semi-finals slated for tomorrow, Ludhiana will take on Nawanshahr (ground no.1), while Hoshiarpur will cross swords with Kapurthala at ground no 2. Both matches will begin at 4.30 pm.