In a shocking development, Dr. V Shanta, who was the chairperson of Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai, has passed away in the wee hours of Tuesday at the age of 94 due to breathing complications. She has complained of breathing difficulty and she was taken to Apollo Hospitals in Chennai on Monday night. Despite the treatment, she breathed her last at around 3.55 am on Tuesday. 

Shanta was a reputed oncologist and she has left behind the towering legacy of battling cancer. She was a well-known medical figure across and beyond the borders and being a nonagenarian, she was active and bestowed her contribution towards fighting cancer. She had appeared in hundreds of interviews in her career towards advocating cancer prevention and her contribution had given a crucial push to the nation in fighting cancer. 

She was the Chairperson of Cancer Institute in Adyar, Chennai for two decades. The institute is one of the reputed and recognized national establishments and under her leadership, the institute had gone even more stronger towards addressing one of the distressing diseases in India. 

Dr. Shanta was born on March 11, 1927, in Chennai to a family of two laureates in Physics. She had completed her school education at National Girls High School and following her school education, she had decided to pick medicine as her career. She pursued her degree from Presidency College in Chennai and she was enrolled for MBBS at Madras Medical College. She completed MBBS in 1940, DGO in 1952, and MD in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1955. 

In multiple interviews in the 1940s, Dr.Shanta had shared that women were not allowed to pursue a career and there wasn't sufficient knowledge on cancer treatments in the country. Dr. Shanta had joined as the medical officer in the Cancer Institute that was established by Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy in 1954. Dr. Reddy was the first woman medical graduate of India and she founded the Cancer Institute along with the Women's India Association and that institute was the first cancer center in South India. 

Shanta had joined the Cancer Institute on April 13, 1955, and she had been serving in the institute till her last breath. As the chairperson of the Institute for the past twenty years, she had made cancer treatments affordable for all the patients. On Monday night, she had suffered breathing difficulty and she was rushed to Apollo Hospitals in Chennai. However, despite the treatment, Shanta had breathed her last at the age of 94 in the wee hours of Tuesday due to breathing complications. 

National leaders and physicians have been paying their tribute to the departed soul and remembering her unparalleled contribution towards fighting cancer. According to reports, her body is currently kept at the old building of the Cancer Institute in Adyar for the public to pay their homage.