Oncology

Holy Spirit Hospital Plans A Cancer Centre

Cancer Centre will provide radiotherapy (both teletherapy-IMRT and IGRT and brachytherapy), medical oncology and surgical oncology

Holy Spirit Hospital, managed by the Society of 'Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit’, is coming up with a cancer center in Mumbai, early next year. The society runs a 300-bed multi-specialty tertiary care hospital in the same city.

The construction of this cancer centre is nearing completion and will be operational from January 16, 2010. This centre will provide radiotherapy (both teletherapy-IMRT and IGRT and brachytherapy), medical oncology and surgical oncology for which it has bought high end technology like Linear Accelerator from Varian - Clinac-iX with IMRT and IGRT. The centre will also provide brachytherapy facility viz GammaMed HDR. Also, in order to provide support to the above Linac, it has recently updated to a 64-slice CT scanner and has bought a 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner.

"We already have pathology and other supportive departments in place. With our high-end linear accelerator and brachytherapy machines, we would be able to treat almost all types of cancers," shared Dr VS Vincent, Assistant Medical Director, Holy Spirit Hospital.

This cancer centre will be a part of the main hospital and hence will be using the hospital beds for surgical oncology and medical oncology admissions. Besides, the hospital is putting 12 beds in the cancer centre for chemotherapy. The linear accelerator can treat up to 60-70 patients per day. Total investment so far has been around Rs 20 crore, including the building infrastructure and machines. "The cancer centre project has been funded by our own internal resources and through donations," said Dr Vincent.

The hospital is expecting initially 45-50 patients per day in this centre. "There are only three such machines in Mumbai so we expect patients not only from the nearby suburbs but from the whole of Mumbai. We also expect surplus referrals from extremely busy centers like Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH)," said Dr Vincent. Initially, this center will stress on the treatment part, but eventually research will be conducted here. "We haven't planned the research aspect as of now," added Dr Vincent.

"TMH and private hospitals offering cancer and radiation care are unable to cope with the rising number of cancer patients. Hence there is a tremendous scope for a comprehensive cancer centre and a radiation therapy centre in Andheri, especially if the services are made affordable for all the socioeconomic strata of society," shared Dr Vincent.

Sonal Shukla