People from Prakasam district have long been shuttling to Chennai, Hyderabad and other cities for cancer treatment.
They can heave a sigh of relief as MNR Curie Cancer Centre will start functioning from Sunday to provide latest treatment for cancer for the first time in Prakasam district,its Director M.Gopichand told reporters here.
“A unit of Health Care Global(HCG) Enterprises with a network of 25 cancer centres across the country, the Centre is fully equipped to provide treatment in preventive oncology, surgical oncology and medical oncology to Prakasam people,” said Dr Gopichand, who had earlier worked in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York.
Stressing the importance of early diagnosis for a cure, he said 90 per cent cure could be assured for patients suffering from first stage of cancer.
Showing the state-of-the-art linear accelerator for radiation therapy, Dr Gopichand said “it treats only affected cancer tissues with least effect on normal tissues.”
While breast cancer and cervix cancer were more prevalent among women, lung cancer and prostrate cancer were common among men. Asserting that Tobacco use in any form would cause cancer, he said now a days even youth used to chewing tobacco and its by-products like Gutka were suffering from advanced stage cancer.
Announcing free consultations for patients with white ration cards, he said the hospital had applied for inclusion in the panel of hospitals under the Rajiv Aarogyasri and is likely to get approval in a few months.
