TIRUNELVELI: The lack of advanced treatment facility for cancer, like bone marrow transplant (BMT) unit, in the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH), forces patients from the southern districts to visit the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala or travel to far-off Chennai for treatment.
At least 20 blood cancer patients and their caretakers whom TNIE interacted in the RCC are from Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Thoothukudi districts. They said they were referred to RCC by medical college hospitals in their respective districts due to absence of BMT unit.
“We were advised by a government oncologist to visit private institutions in Vellore or Chennai (Adyar) if we are unwilling to go to RCC, which is run by the Kerala government. Unable to travel nearly 700 km to Chennai with my ailing 23-year-old brother, I admitted him to RCC. However, as we do not have PM-JAY insurance cashless cover, I had to spend several lakhs of rupees for his chemotherapy. For the bone marrow transplant, I have been told to arrange Rs 12 lakh to Rs 16 lakh,” said a 27-year-old crane operator.
When contacted by TNIE in April, RCC director Dr Rekha A Nair said the institution had registered 1,521 new patients from TN in 2024-25. According to the data she shared, the most number of patients was from Kanniyakumari (40.63%), Tirunelveli (11.9%), Tenkasi (10.65%) and Thoothukudi (7.36%) districts.
Institutions in Coimbatore (6.05%), Virudhunagar (5.72%), Tiruppur (3.16%), Madurai (2.83%), Ramanathapuram (1.38%) and Theni (1.38%) also referred their patients to the RCC. Even 13 patients from Chennai and two from Kancheepuram, where Government Arignar Anna Memorial Cancer Hospital is located, approached RCC.
Dr Arumugam, Head of the Medical Oncology Department at TvMCH, said the hospital refers only patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) to institutions with BMT units like RCC.
“As of now, only two Chennai-based government institutions have the treatment facility. We are expecting Rs 84 crore (minority fund) from the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs for upgrading cancer facilities at TvMCH. We have diagnosed 39 ALL and 42 AML patients in TvMCH from 2020 to 2024,” he said. Collector Dr R Sukumar said he would facilitate the minority fund as soon as possible.
DME Dr J Sangumani said TN would soon set up a BMT unit at Madurai Rajaji GMCH and will consider establishing a unit in Tirunelveli in the future.