While medical technology has advanced enough to cure 60 out of 100 persons with cancer, it is important to pay attention to those 40 people who could not be cured, and give them adequate palliative care, V. Shanta, chairman, Cancer Institute, said.
Over the years it had been established that cancer could be cured if identified at an early stage, she said, after inaugurating the RMD Speciality Hospital, a palliative care hospital with 50-beds, instituted by the RMD Pain and Palliative Care Trust, at Amarambedu near Sriperumpudur on Sunday.
Dr. Shanta recalled that there had indeed been a stage where cancer patients were believed to have no hope, but that was in the past.
Commending the efforts taken by the RMD Trust in providing palliative care, Dr. Shanta it was utmost important on the part of doctors and nurses involved in palliative care service to be more compassionate and empathetic towards the patients.
