The UPA Government has made fight against cancer a top priority in the national health sector and is focusing on expanding research efforts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here today.
A national cancer grid is being set up to facilitate easy exchange of information about the feared disease, he said, adding the Government has accorded top priority to tackling this health menace.
"We are constantly expanding our efforts on cancer research," the Prime Minister said after laying the foundation of the National Hadron Beam Facility of the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) here.
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"This is the third cancer treatment facility for which I am laying the foundation stone in less than two weeks."
The facility, expected to be commissioned in four years at a cost of around Rs 425 crore, will place India in a select group of countries having such a unit, Singh said.
The PM also laid the foundation stone for a new building for women and paediatric cancer patients.
Both projects are coming up on a five-acre plot in the Haffkine Institute adjacent to TMC, a premium centre for cancer treatment and research. The plot was given by the Maharashtra Government free of cost last year.
At the Hadron therapy facility, a machine will use protons instead of photons to deliver precise beams that destroy cancer cells.
"Conventional radiation has several issues as it can destroy normal cells along with the cancerous cells, but the proton beam therapy will be more precise and not harm surrounding tissues," Singh said.
A doctor at the Tata Memorial Hospital's radiation therapy department said hadron therapy deposits high level of radiation critical to control aggressive tumours but gives small dose to the non-cancerous tissues.
