Proton Therapy could be used for cancer treatment.
The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu said this when he was addressing the gathering after inaugurating the Apollo’s State-of-the-art Proton Cancer Centre, which is the first such centre in Southeast Asia, in Chennai yesterday. Naidu appreciated the Apollo Hospitals for starting Proton Therapy centre which uses high-energy proton to irradiate tumors.
The VP said that advanced cancer treatment must be made available at an affordable price and should also be made available for those living in rural areas. He urged the private sector to complement the efforts of government in this endeavour.
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Saying that Proton Therapy would be a beacon of hope to people, Naidu said that the cutting-edge of cancer treatment gives many more patients greater strength to battle cancer and lead fulfilling lives. It isolates the affected area, without causing any harm to adjacent organs and hence is the most suitable for treatment of cancer in children, and complex cases where cancerous organs are closely located to crucial life-critical organs, he added.
The Vice President expressed concern that cancer had killed more than double the number of people in 2016 than it had targeted in 1990. He stressed up on the need to increase awareness about early detection and enhance early detection by taking up massive education drives and screening programmes.
Naidu also suggested institutions like Apollo Hospitals to launch mobile screening vans for both urban and rural areas so that more and more people are covered by screening programmes. Awareness about Cancer and detecting the disease at an early stage would avert its dangers, he added.
Talking about the glaring disparity in the provision of the services between urban and rural areas, the Vice President asked the private sector to expand facilities to the rural areas, where the majority of India’s population lives. Despite India successfully eliminating some infectious diseases and improved the reach of healthcare delivery, we still have challenges in healthcare delivery, he added.
The Vice President said that inadequate public spend, low doctor-patient ratio, high share of out-of-pocket expenditure, inadequate infrastructure in rural areas, lack of penetration of health insurance and inadequate preventive mechanisms were the main challenges faced by Indian health sector.
