India Breast Cancer Surge Hinders Private Exams for Women

Oncologist Bhawna Sirohi hurries to the front of a packed seminar room at Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital on a Thursday afternoon in April. Cramming this meeting into her 12-hour workday, she greets more than three dozen breast cancer patients united by the bright scarves covering their bald heads.

Sirohi says that when she began her job at Tata Memorial, Asia’s largest cancer treatment center, last year, she realized she could never give the 50 to 60 patients she sees each day enough individual attention. Doctors at India’s premier oncology hospital typically have less than 10 minutes apiece for 1,000 newcomers a week. They often examine three people at a time in a single room, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its December issue.