In good news for the cancer patients, the treatment with Proton Therapy will start in the next few months at Tata Memorial Centre’s (TMC) ACTREC Kharghar centre. The major part of the project has been commissioned for the clinical trial during a small event held at the Kharghar centre on Friday.
At present, treatment with Proton Therapy is available at only one centre in Chennai. TMC’s Kharghar facility will be the first in the public sector in India where cancer treatment will be available at a subsidized rate.
The cost of treatment with Proton Therapy in the US ranges between Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crores. However, the treatment at ACTREC Kharghar will be available at a subsidized rate, while the economically weaker section persons could get free of cost treatment.
TMC Parel Director Dr Rajendra Badwe said that the TMC Proton Therapy Centre is the first 3-Gantry state-of-the-art proton therapy facility in the country. "Continuous progress against all impediments of the pandemic is a significant accomplishment and a major milestone in serving the needy patients," Dr. Badwe said.
"Besides delivering quality treatment, TMC will focus on conducting research for better defining the role of proton therapy for different tumour types and also be a nodal centre for capacity building," he added.
“Once the project starts functioning in full capacity, around 800 patients will get treatment in a year, and half of the patients will be given free of cost,” said Dr Badwe.
The project has been completed in a record time and this is an achievement for TMC and Ion Beam Application (IBA). The IBA is a Belgian-based company and world leader in Proton Therapy and accelerator systems. Rakesh Pathak, Director, IBA India said that the IBA is committed to continuing making best efforts to help TMC provide the best proton treatment experience to the patients of our country.
Dr Siddhartha Laskar, deputy Director Academics at TMC, Parel (Academics), who is also overseeing the project informed that the most advanced Proton Therapy Center project is nearing completion and the second treatment room is ready for clinical commissioning.
He added that the treatment modality is called the Proton Therapy Treatment and is the first of its kind in the public sector in India.
Dr Sudeep Gupta, Director ACTREC, praised both ACTREC and IBA team for the execution of the project and assured to bring the best healthcare possible to patients in India.
