Dr. Mala Mathur Sharma

Dr. (Col) Mala Mathur Sharma is an alumnus of the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, Pune (Pune University) and Premier Cancer Institute of India, Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai. She graduated from AFMC in 1988 and got commissioned in Army Medical Corps. She received post graduate training from same Institute and worked as a general surgeon in various hospitals of Indian Armed Forces including in high altitude (Leh and Kargil sector). She completed 2 years Post-Doctoral Training in Surgical Oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. She has more than 20 years of experience in practice of general surgery and surgical oncology in leading Institutes of Armed Forces including Malignant Diseases Treatment Centre (MDTC) Pune and Oncology Centre, Command Hospital Central Command, Lucknow. Dr. Mala has extensive experience in practice of surgery and oncosurgery and has been performing all major surgical oncological procedures of head and neck, gastrointestinal, soft tissue tumours and gynaec-oncology. Her special areas of interest are thoracic oncology and breast oncology. She has specialised training in oncoplastic breast surgery from University of East Anglia, Norwich, England and has been performing a wide variety of oncoplastic breast conservation surgeries since 2012 in leading Armed Forces Institutions as well as in Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, and has many publications in Pubmed indexed journals on oncoplastic breast surgery.

Dr. Mala joined Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, in 2014 as a faculty after taking premature retirement from Armed Forces and has been on teaching faculty in Department of General Surgery. She also has been actively involved in promoting and performing oncoplastic breast conservation surgeries in this institution since 2014. Oncoplastic breast surgery is an oncologically approved concept where various plastic surgery techniques of breast are applied to conserve breast in cases of breast cancer without compromising the oncological safety and yet keeping in mind the final cosmetic result of operated breast which includes local rotation flaps, distant flaps and breast implants.

Oncoplastic breast conservation is the standard of care for early breast cancer all over the world and extensive research worldwide has proved breast conservation to be a safe surgery for breast cancer as it not only gives a cosmetically acceptable breast and body image but also improves quality of life, social acceptance and mental happiness for the breast cancer patients. Besides primary breast surgery, Dr Mala is also actively involved in rehabilitation of breast cancer patients which includes surgical rehabilitation like post mastectomy breast reconstruction and provision of external prosthesis etc locally and counselling regarding benefits of breast conservation. Dr. Mala is also an avid teacher and has also been on teaching faculty of Armed Forces Medical College under Pune University, Maharashtra University of Health Services and King George Medical College as a graduate and post graduate teacher in general surgery as well as a DNB teacher in surgical oncology.