Muzumdar Shaw Cancer Centre (MSCC), a part of Narayana Health City in Bangalore, has installed the advanced three dimensional Image Guided Radiotherapy Synergy systems (IGRT) in Karnataka.

The advanced radiation technique is proven to increase the accuracy of radiation delivery, and improving the cure rates of various cancers. A key feature is that it is reported to reduce the toxicity during treatment modalities.

The radiotherapy treatment machine in MSCC is one of the very few machines in the country with triple energy treatment mode as compared to single or double in most of the other cancer hospitals. The Radiation Oncologists in MSCC are confident of improving the quality of cancer control in the region with the help of this technology.

Radiotherapy planning is a very complex process involving specialized planning computers as well as trained doctors and physicists. The patients, who are to receive radiation, undergo a CT scan and this data is utilized by the doctors to precisely demarcate the area where cancel cells are most likely to be present. MSCC hosts India’s largest radiotherapy planning facility which has capacity to do planning over 100 patients in a month, said Dr Prasad Dandekar, chief, radiation oncologist, MSCC.

The most important technical advancement of IGRT is that, while the patient is lying on the automated treatment table for receiving radiation, the doctors are able to carry out a CT scan. This CT scan is captured with the help of a special scanner which is a part of the radiation machine itself. This CT scan and the previous CT scan done for the radiation planning are then compared with an accuracy of 0.01cm, almost the size of a needle head! The treating doctors are then able to correct any inaccuracy in the patient’s position automatically from outside the treatment room and treat the patient with the precision. This technology is to transform the standard of care for the patients, he added.

The 1,500 bed MSCC was opened this year in July in Bommasandra Industrial Area off Bangalore. Going by the bed strength and access for over 5,000 cases a day, it is being recognized as the world's largest cancer hospital with a particular focus on head and neck cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer.