Podcast

with Tasha Gandamihardja

Bob Octovianus

Dr Bob Octovianus

My Breast My Health

S2 Ep35: Treating breast cancer in a developing country – Dr Bob Octovianus

Today my guest is Dr Bob Octovianus. Bob is a breast surgeon based in Indonesia who is doing incredible work for those affected by breast cancer in his city, Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia. For those who may not know, Indonesia is one of the most populated countries in the world, with about 300 million people. That is massive! Now, as you can imagine, for a country that size, health care provision can be daunting.

Dr Bob has many challenges that he must overcome, including how to deal with limited resources, cultural challenges as well as the lack of breast awareness within the community. At the moment, Indonesia does not have a breast screening service similar to what we have here in the UK. Most of Dr Bob’s patients come with breast lumps. In fact, over 60% would come with locally advanced breast cancer. We talked about the possible reasons why this was the case and what challenges this poses in terms of treatment options. Chemotherapy facilities are not readily available and so many women are forced to choose to have surgery first without systemic treatment, leading to higher incidences of recurrences.

Although breast cancer is a global disease, it was evident from our conversation that health provision varies drastically.

Dr Bob Octovianus

In his efforts to improve education and to get more women to present to their doctors earlier, Dr Bob is active on social media. He especially uses his IG platform to educate his followers about all things related to breast cancer. You can catch him doing lectures and IG lives which is such an amazing thing to do.

Do connect with Dr Bob on Instagram @askbobrsos.

Can you help out?

If you are enjoying the My Breast My Health podcast and find it useful, I would be really grateful if you could leave a rating and review. This will help me produce more content and bring value to more people.

You can do this by clicking on Apple Podcast, scroll down to the bottom, rate with the stars and then select ‘Write a Review’. Do let me know which episodes you found useful and what you loved about them.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, then do subscribe to the podcast. You can do it at Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts and other podcast apps that take your fancy.


If you have wondered what a surgeon does on an operating day, let me take you behind the scenes. Check out this podcast episode, be a fly on the wall and listen here.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LISTENING

Could you help us out?

If you are enjoying the My Breast My Health podcast and find it useful, I would be really grateful if you could leave a rating and review. This will help me produce more content and bring value to more people.

You can do this by clicking on Apple Podcast, scroll down to the bottom, rate with the stars and then select ‘Write a Review’. Do let me know which episodes you found useful and what you loved about them.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, then do subscribe to the podcast. You can do it at Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts and other podcast apps that take your fancy.

RELATED PODS