Nueclear Healthcare Ltd (NHL) in association with GE Healthcare as technology partner will work to establish mega network of 120 molecular imaging centres around the country by 2015. The first molecular imaging centre for early, affordable cancer detection was opened at Navi Mumbai and five more centres will be commissioned in 2013.

The hub and spoke model will help scale up affordable access to advanced molecular imaging technologies such as PET/CT required early detection of cancer. NHL proposes to offer PET/CT imaging at just Rs.10,000 compared to approximately Rs.18000 - Rs.25000 patients pay today for same services.

“At GE, we envision a day when cancer is no longer a deadly disease. Today’s event reinforces our commitment to cancer and reflects our current integrated portfolio and GE Healthcare’s $1billion R&D investment to advance oncology solutions by 2016,” said John Dineen, president & CEO, GE Healthcare who inaugurated the facility.

“Scaling up of cancer diagnosis and treatment requires disruptive innovations and willing partners. By partnering with NHL, we can work for a healthier India by providing access to advanced affordable early cancer detection technologies to more people of India,” he added.

The cancer burden in developing countries is reaching pandemic proportions. It is one of the leading causes of fatality in India. The country reports about 2.5 million cancer patients, one million added every year with a chance of rising five-fold by 2025 prompting Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) urging the Government of India to make cancer a notifiable disease. There is a high probability of treating Cancer if detected early – in Stage I or Stage II. However, over 70 per cent of cancer is detected late at a very late stage in India, when treatment is less effective and costly. While low awareness is one significant reason, unavailability of early cancer detection facilities and availability of experts is the other significant reason.

The NHL network of molecular imaging centres will have 12 medical cyclotrons that produce bio-markers required for cancer imaging and 120 GE Discovery PET/CT imaging scanners.

“Cost has been one of the biggest barriers in advancing early cancer detection. We have removed the barrier of cost by reducing the cost to patient by half. We are following the same concept which made Thyrocare a household name today. If we make detection and treatment affordable, more people will come forward and the sheer volume will take care of our capital investments. We have a great partner in GE Healthcare and our visions match – make India a healthier country,” said Dr A Velumani, founder & managing director of Nueclear Healthcare Ltd, Mumbai.