Mumbai: BMC to provide Proton Therapy to poor patients

The facilities at the centre will be available at minimal rates. Representation pic

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to launch a Cancer Care Center under the KEM hospital for the first time. A consultant will be appointed for this for Rs 2.8 crore, and will be responsible to identify an appropriate location for the centre and will also have to provide expertise on Proton Therapy. A proposal for the same will be tabled before the standing committee on Wednesday.

As per the proposal, the centre will have state-of-the-art treatment and detection facilities for cancer including chemotherapy, mammography, sonography, brachytherapy along with proton therapy which only destroys cancer cells without affecting other cells in the body.

The consultant will oversee technical and equipment details for proton therapy, project design, supplier identification and supervision for timely completion. The centre will be on an area of about three acres and is pegged at around Rs 100 crore.

Currently underprivileged patients get free treatment through 16 peripheral hospitals, maternity hospitals, dispensaries including four major hospitals of the BMC. However, a large number of facilities are not available in the municipal hospitals. So poor patients have to bear the financial burden for certain treatments at private hospitals. The waiting list at these places could make the disease worse and thus to cater to this class of the citizens, the facilities will be available at minimal rates, which is yet to be decided, said civic officials.

But even as the proposal mentions that the consultant will have to provide the expertise for setting up the Proton Therapy centre, the first in the city, civic officials said it would decide after the consultant's report whether or not it is really needed. Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said, "We want the expertise as not many are aware of the therapy and we have also asked the consultant to check the feasibility of the project and will it be needed. We will take a call based on their findings."

Proton Therapy

The most advanced and effective treatment for cancer is proton therapy, a type of radiation that targets only cancer cells without killing other cells in the body. It avoids all the side effects of chemotherapy by destroying more cancer cells with its lowest dose.