Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre in Cuttack. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, June 8: The Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC), the only state-run cancer hospital in Odisha, will shortly have linear accelerators (LINACs), an advanced device used in cancer treatment.

LINAC is a device used to pinpoint where cancer cells end and healthy cells start. LINACs, according to cancer specialists, are important to identify the damaged cells and to apply radiotherapy properly so that it kills cancer cells without destroying healthy cells.

The 240-bed hospital here is the only hope for thousands of cancer patients of not only Odisha but also parts of neighbouring states Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bengal.

With an annual cancer patient attendance between 20,000 and 26,000 at the hospital here, nearly 10,000 require indoor admissions. Around 20 to 25 per cent of them need radiotherapy treatment to kill cancer cells. AHRCC currently manages with more than 15-year-old Cobalt machines that provide radiotherapy treatment but are not as precise as LINACs.

AHRCC director Sushil Kumar Giri told The Telegraph that the process to procure linear accelerators was under way. “As part of a Rs 47-crore project, two linear accelerators will be installed along with CT simulator and CT scanner at a cost of Rs 34 crore in an integrated complex,” Giri said.

CT simulation is a process used by radiotherapists to determine the exact location and size of the area to be treated. CT scan is a computerised X-ray procedure that produces cross-sectional images of the body. The images are far more detailed than X-ray films and can reveal disease or abnormalities in tissue and bone.

Noted oncologist and retired AHRCC director U.R. Parija said: “Radiotherapy is a major treatment to cure or control cancer. Hence the hospital needs linear accelerators to apply radiotherapy most effectively on cancer patients.”

“LINACs pinpoint where cancer cells end and healthy cells start. The LINACs benefits patients by helping radiologists deliver enough radiation to a spreading tumour to eliminate it while minimising the part of healthy tissue that get exposed to the radiation,” Parija said.

“Installation of linear accelerators at the hospital will ensure that the poor and middle class have access to cancer treatment at a government hospital in state,” he said.

In the couple of private hospitals in Bhubaneswar that have LINACs, each session of radiotherapy costs nearly Rs 4,000. A cancer patient, on an average, needs between 25 and 40 sessions. Once the facility is available in AHRCC, patients can get this facility for less than one-third of what it costs in private hospitals.