Shillong, Oct 16: NEIGRIHMS achieved yet another milestone recently by starting 4-D Radiation Therapy for cancer patients for the first time in the region. This advanced form of Radiotherapy is offered by very few centres across India.
Extremely usefulin the treatment of tumours that move with breathing, this special techniquehelps targeting tumours of lung, liver and pancreaswherein radiation can be focussed precisely to destroy the cancer without much damage to the surrounding normal tissue and organs.
Prof. (Dr) Nalin Mehta,Director of NEIGRIHMS, congratulated the team comprising Drs.Sumit Kumar, DeiwakorChyrmang, Resident doctors, Radiation Safety Officer, Medical Physicist and the Radiotherapy technologists for excellent team work and said “I’m very proud to declare that the NEIGRIHMS Radiotherapy department has standardised the delivery of this special 4D-RT, also called respiratory gating, that targets cancer masses that move with patient’s breathingwhile at the same time limitingcollateral damage to surrounding tissue”.
He also stated that “With the installation of other State-of-the-Art facilities like High Energy Linear Accelerator, 4D-CT simulator and Brachytherapy, world class cancer treatment will now be offered at the Regional Cancer Centre, NEIGRIHMS to not only patients of our State of Meghalaya, but also to those from other North Eastern States as well as the neighbouring countries, who otherwise had to travel far for advanced cancer treatment”.
Dr Vikas Jagtap, Additional Professor and Head, Department of Radiotherapy, elaborated that such treatment required a good amount of time and application of technology. Also, the patients have to be coached for few days to in breathing pattern exercises to aid precise and accurate delivery of focused radiation.
He added that250 patients had so far been treated with advanced radiation techniques like 3D-CRT, VMAT (Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy) and ARC therapy which helps reduce side effects of radiation to a great extent.
Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Hon’ble Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, and Chemicals & Fertilizers inaugurated the Regional Cancer Centre at NEIGRIHMS on the 14th of October, 2023 and praised the efforts of NEIGRIHMS in providing the quality cancer treatment and emphasised the role of NEIGRIHMS as a major health hub for the entire North East Region.
It is also noteworthy that Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy at NEIGRIHMS are offered at highly subsidized rates to cancer patients. For those who are enrolled under the MHIS and PM-JAY scheme the benefit of cashless treatment is offered on the production of the registration card.
