Manmohan Singh lays foundation stone for high-tech cancer facility

Mumbai: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday laid the foundation stone for the country’s first National Hadron Beam Facility and a Cancer Centre for Women and Children of the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), which will be a big boon for cancer patients.

The central government gave its nod for setting up of the Rs4.5 billion (Dh267.15 million) project last November and the Maharashtra government has already provided five acres (2.02 hectares) of land on the Haffkine Institute premises, close to the TMC hospital in Parel for the two new centres.

Though the funds are meant for the two projects, 80 per cent of it will be spent on the hadron beam facility. To be developed by the department of atomic energy (DAE), the state-of-the-art Hadron Beam Therapy Centre will provide focused radiation therapy for cancer patients.

“While there have been tremendous advancements in radiotherapy, an integral component in the treatment of cancers over the last couple of decades, there are still several clinical situations with significant scope for improvement,” says Dr Rakesh Jalali, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the TMC hospital.

Hadron beam therapy, also known as proton beam or heavy ion therapy, is a very advanced procedure for cancer. Doctors say conventional radiation has several issues as it can destroy normal cells along with the cancerous cells. However, proton therapy will target tumours with minimal damage to surrounding tissue and is especially useful for certain cancers in children, who are in danger of lasting damages to their organs that are in growing stage.

India has over 450 conventional radiation machines but the new Hadron centre will not only be the first in the country but also among few such centres across the world.

Hadron therapy is popular in Europe, US, Japan and Taiwan but there are only 20-odd centres in the world providing the treatment. The DAE is expected to start the process of floating global tenders and it would take three to four years for the centre to be fully operational.