Yashoda setting up Rs 100cr cancer centre

The Yashoda Group of Hospitals is setting up a cancer centre at an investment of Rs 100 crore. Being set up adjacent to its Somajiguda hospital in Hyderabad, the 150-bedded cancer centre would offer treatment including diagnosis, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

The centre would be manned by 500 employees, including a pathologist from the Tata Memorial Hospital and Cancer Research Institute, radiation oncologists and support staff. It is expected to be operational by May this year, group managing director GS Rao said.

"We expect 6,000 patients a year to the cancer treatment centre. The first year would see the inflow of a few dozens from outside the state and abroad, which is expected to comprise 25 per cent from 2009," he added.

Announcing the deployment of RapidArc, a Rs 14-crore and the Asia's first radiation technology unit, at the centre on Wednesday, he said the equipment would make the delivery of image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) two to eight times faster and more precisely than is possible with conventional IMRT or helical tomotherapy.

"RapidArc enables us to diagnose around 250 patients a day, as against 70 earlier," Rao added.

RapidArc technology, a proprietary algorithm that creates a finely-shaped IMRT dose distribution that closely matches the size and share of the tumour, was developed by US-based Varian Medical Systems, manufacturer of medical products for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy and radiosurgery.

Besides, the company supplies X-ray tubes and digital detectors for imaging in medical, scientific and industrial applications. Thus far, Varian Medical has sold 40 RapidArcs globally.