Patna : Work on state cancer institute to start soon

PATNA: The state government on Thursday gave its nod in writing for commencing the construction of a 100-bed state cancer institute at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), IGIMS medical superintendent Dr Manish Mandal told this newspaper on Friday. The institute is proposed to be developed with Rs138 crore.

He said Rs90 crore of the project cost has been contributed by the Centre while the state government is to spend Rs30 crore and IGIMS the rest Rs18 crore.

“Once this institute is complete and operational, treatment for all types of cancer will be possible at the IGIMS. It will provide facilities related to cancer consultation, investigation and treatment under one roof. Six out of the 100 beds are for intensive care unit. Emergency facilities will also be available at the institute. We are trying to procure the best machines for radiation and chemotherapy. The institute will come up after two years. A total of 50 employees, including doctors and healthcare providers, will be there,” Dr Mandal said.

A Chennai-based company will construct the building between the emergency and Regional Cancer Centre (RCC). The building will be G+10.

The institute will enrol physicists, oncologists, radiation oncologists, senior physicists, nuclear medicine specialists among other doctors. Equipment for treatment will include linear accelerators for high-dose rate (HDR) and low-dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy.

It will constitute a treatment planning system that combines advanced planning tools with dose calculation algorithms which support a range of treatment modalities, a CT simulator to determine the exact location, shape and size of the tumour to be treated, a PET-CT for diagnostics, a cyclotron for proton therapy and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine which helps doctors plan cancer treatments such as surgery or radiation therapy.