Renowned Cancer Surgeon With 35 Years’ Mastery Credits God for His Success

Nov 24, 2025: Dr. Anthony Pais is that rare combination: the strategic genius who saw specialisation as the winning move decades before it became conventional wisdom, and a firm believer who testifies to divine intervention in operating theatres.

He's the senior surgical oncologist with 35 years of experience under his belt, who spent years at India’s premier cancer centres not because he drifted there, but because he outlined his path right from school; who rose through positions at St. John’s, hospitals in the Gulf, and ten years under Dr. Devi Shetty at Narayana Health Group because he executed that plan brilliantly.

And yet, he's the surgeon who prays before every surgery—not as a backup plan when skill fails, but as the recognition that in the operating theatre, where cancer has rearranged anatomy and millimetres matter, there are outcomes that exceed what expertise alone guarantees.

"There's a hand of God behind everything," he says simply.

After years of watching carefully planned expertise combine with inexplicable precision, and witnessing the surgical knife stop at exactly the right spot even when visibility is compromised and anatomy was unpredictable, he does not see faith and skill as competing explanations.

He sees them as the only way to fully grasp the extraordinary reality of what unfolds in that operating theatre.

The Garage That Built the Surgeon’s Strategy

Before he became the surgeon known for blending precision with faith, Dr. Anthony Pais learned his most defining professional lesson not in a hospital but in a garage. Intriguing, isn't it?

Picture Kanteerava Stadium in the early 1970s. Next to it sat a garage—but not the kind he'd grown up seeing in Mangalore. Back home, garages fixed everything: scooters, cars, trucks, whatever rolled in. This one? Only Mercedes and Benz.

And it was packed. Several cars waiting outside. Every single day.

Most people would walk past without thinking. Dr. Pais saw a strategic revelation—a live case study in positioning, niche focus, and demand created by expertise, not by marketing.

“I realised the value of true specialisation. Trying to do everything is not possible and not worth it. Being a super specialist is the need of the hour in our country.”

While many doctors pursued general practice, trying to cover the entire spectrum, Dr. Pais committed early to a niche: surgical oncology. He chose depth over breadth, focus over fragmentation—the kind of clarity strategists now call category leadership.

But speak to him about 35 years of success, and he doesn’t credit strategy alone.

“Looking backwards over now 35 years in the field of surgery, I think to a great extent it is because of sticking to ethics and principles regarding our Catholic faith has helped me a lot to grow.”

 Testimonies from Surgery

There's a moment in cancer surgery that no textbook prepares you for. The anatomy shifts. Tumors have rearranged what should be familiar territory. One millimeter too far and you sever a major vessel. The patient's life hangs on precision you can't quite calculate.

Dr. Pais has been in that moment countless times. And he's noticed something extraordinary.

"If at all you've said a prayer invoking God's blessings during your surgery, it is very strange—I do not know how to explain this—but the knife stops at the right spot without damaging a major vessel."

This isn’t a man prone to mysticism. This is a surgeon shaped by decades of rigorous clinical practice, a career marked by leadership, research, and excellence in cancer care. A seasoned expert who has guided teams, treated thousands, and earned deep respect in the medical community—not for titles, but for the integrity and precision with which he has lived.

Yet he says it without hesitation: "It is only the hand of God that holds the surgeon's hand all through surgery."

The Stethoscope That Started a Calling

The foundation was laid impossibly early. His first toy wasn't a cricket bat—it was a real stethoscope, given by his father's uncle who was a doctor. Then a science teacher in school saw something in the young boy and nurtured it relentlessly through all his school years.

By the time he reached Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore, he wasn't exploring options. He was executing a vision that had been clear since childhood. After graduation, he began nearly eight years of intensive cancer training at institutions most surgeons only dream of accessing—Tata Memorial Hospital and Kidwai Institute.

His Message to the Youth

Young Catholics entering any field—medicine, business, engineering—ask him if faith really makes a difference in professional life. His answer comes from 35 years of proof:

"Prayer does help. It does help you tide over problems, but as long as you are sincere to your job and pray before you start... there is the hand of God to protect you."

It's not soft inspiration. It's hard data from a man who has stood in life-and-death moments more times than most of us can imagine. Who has watched outcomes shift when they shouldn't have. Who has felt precision exceed what his elite training could guarantee.

 Where Expertise and Faith Unite

Today, you'll find Dr. Pais consulting at his clinic on Langford Road and practicing at Hosmat Hospital in Sadashivanagar, Bangalore. 

Thirty-five years of deep, specialised expertise have made Dr. Pais the surgeon people turn to when cancer cases are at their most complex.

After witnessing outcomes that skill alone cannot explain, he does not separate precision from prayer.

The knife reaches the right spot—not only because of what he knows, but because of the God he asks.

This isn't just competence or blind faith. It's the profound conviction of a surgeon who has done it all, seen it all, and stands as a vital bridge between human ability and unwavering faith.

"I am convinced beyond doubt that whatever successes I have had is only because of God Almighty. Yes, hard work, sincerity pays, but without His blessing, it is impossible to succeed."

By Catholic Connect Reporter