Mumbai, Feb. 4: With 70 per cent cancer diagnosis done at the last stage in India, the Asian Cancer Institute (ACI) on Saturday launched a new day care centre for chemotherapy and cancer care here.
According to ACI, apart from regular chemotherapy sessions, evaluating patients for treatment, tests and diagnosis will be conducted at this outreach programme-cum-day care centre.
Doctors say that such diagnosis and chemotherapy centres are important because for any type of cancer, approximately 50 per cent patients need chemotherapy at least once in their lifetime.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says cancer is diagnosed in more than 14 million people worldwide each year and kills approximately 8.8 million people.
Around two-thirds of the deaths are in low-middle income countries where diagnosis is inadequate and treatment late.
“Regular chemotherapy for a general patient lasts at least for six sessions. For each of this chemotherapy, the patient has to travel all the way to hospitals,” said Ramakant Deshpande, Oncosurgeon and Vice Chairman of Asian Cancer Institute.
Accessibility to quality cancer care is a challenge in our country and smart cancer centres intend to address the same,” Deshpande said.
