Navi Mumbai gets shot in the arm to fight cancer

This Independence Day brought smiles to faces of all the cancer patients in Navi Mumbai as the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) --Kharghar, a counterpart of the Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel -- opened its door for checkup, treatment and follow-up of cancer cases.

Ray of hope: The ACTREC centre in Kharghar which boasts of u00a0techniques and expertise for cancer diagnosis including 3Tesla MRI, neuro-navigation, hi-precision Tomotherapy and Bone Marrow Transplantu00a0

With the facility now set to treat patients from Navi Mumbai and Raigad district, those suffering from the killer disease would no longer require reference from the Parel hospital. Dr Rajiv Sarin, ACTREC director, made this announcement on August 15.

Sarin explained that ACTREC with its equipment, techniques and expertise for cancer diagnosis including 3Tesla MRI, neuro-navigation, hi-precision Tomotherapy and Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) has achieved treatment results comparable to the leading cancer centres in the world.

"We have been planning this for over a year now. Our groundwork comprised estimating the number and types of cancer cases in this region and the availability of cancer care in Navi Mumbai. Besides, we also needed an approval from the governing council of the Tata Memorial Centre to enhance our infrastructure and staff to cope with the additional cases."

Presently, to cater to the additional inflow of patients which the authorities feel would gradually increase over time, they have decided to immediately begin with a new ward and more Out Patient Departments (OPDs) as well. The centre has plans to construct a new building to provide OPD and other medical facilities within a year's time.

When asked what prompted the move, Sarin said, "The actual number of cancer cases in the region seem to have increased due to the growing population. Besides, we had received requests from CIDCO, NMMC and other local bodies and this prompted us to start direct registration at the facility." u00a0