Kolkata: Aiming to make it the numero uno centre for cancer treatment in India, the Tata Medical Center (TMC) here would complete its second phase at a cost of about Rs 150 crore in two years, its Director Dr Mammen Chandy said.
"Construction for the phase II will commence by this monsoon and we hope to make it ready by early 2014 having 250 beds," Chandy said after a media inspection of TMC`s existing facilities here today.
"Once phase II work is completed with all the facilities, it is poised to turn into the best cancer treatment centre in India," he said.
The TMC also wanted to set up a Tata Translational Cancer Research Centre, aimed at detecting the disease at the inception which was expected to be completed by late 2014 or early 2015, said the eminent oncologist.
The Cancer Research Centre, to come up a little distance away from the TMC, would be set up to provide `home away from home` therapy to people and have the latest
instruments for detection of malignancy including gastroesophageal reflux, esophagus cancer, he said.
The TMC and the Research Centre would provide an integrated, holistic solution to cancer research and treatment when the two facilities gelled by 2015, TMC Deputy Director Dr V R Ramanan told PTI.
"We are recruiting qualified talented people as many Bengalis spread all over the globe seek to be back if given the right kind of opportunities. We have inked MoU with
Manchestar University to pick up people and for more collaborative training," Chandy said.
Advocating the need for detection of cancer at a premature stage, Dr Tom Ryan DeMeester, a world-renowned name in esophagus cancer, said "cancer therapy is important as the initial symptom may not be of concern at the beginning but can lead to another situation."
DeMeester, roped in by TMC to oversee setting up of the Department of Gastroenterology, said esophagus cancer was on the rise in India and south Asia due to changing lifestyle of people.
"It is also caused by squamous carcinoma, mostly by smoking and chewing of tobacco. The change in lifestyle and having junk food are also factors," DeMeester said.
To a question, Chandy said, among women the preponderance of cervix cancer was slowly on the decline, unlike the situation sometimes back, while the number of
breast cancer was rising.
PTI
