‘Proton therapy for cancer soon’
NEW DELHI: The Apollo group will soon introduce proton beam therapy for cancer treatment, with the first such unit to come up in Chennai by 2018 at an estimated investment of about Rs 1,200 crore. With this, it will become one of the few nations in the world offering this kind of advanced cancer care treatment.
“Four years ago, I wanted to introduce proton, the ultimate therapy for cancer. The whole board, including my own four daughters, opposed it, saying how can you spend Rs 1,000 crore on one machine… I had the same opposition when I bought my first CT Scan… but the results benefited many patients,” said Prathap Reddy, founder chairman of Apollo Group.
He said the unit could have been set up early, but it got delayed because the central government wanted to make sure the equipment was safe enough. “They made more than 10 trips overseas. They were probably convinced only after they were told such a machine has been installed near a Montessori school in Paris. It has been delayed by more than two years,” said Reddy.
He said the machine has finally arrived and the installation is under progress. It should be ready in next 12-13 months, Reddy added.
There is a new proton machine that can operate in a single room and the cost is less. So, countries are exploring ways to set up such machines.
“There are 28 proton machines working in the US and Europe… The US is adding almost one every quarter; China has got the second machine,” said Reddy.
Over six lakh individuals die of cancer every year in India and more than half of them are between 30 and 70 years. Today, proton therapy is used to treat many cancers and is mainly appropriate in situations where treatment options are restricted or conventional radiotherapy poses a peril to the patient.
The clinical advantages of the proton therapy in contrast to conventional radiation therapy are huge, with about 80,000 patients treated worldwide.