Bir Hospital to start tomotherapy service
Kathmandu, May 5
Bir Hospital will very soon start providing tomotherapy to cancer patients.
“Tomotherapy machine has already arrived at Kolkata port and it will take a month's time to reach Nepal. Soon after the machine is installed at the hospital, we will start the service,” said Dr Bhupendra Kumar Basnet, director at Bir Hospital.
Tomotherapy is a type of radiation therapy. It is a new way to deliver radiation treatment. The process combines treatment planning, CT image-guided patient positioning and treatment delivery into one integrated system.
Tomotherapy uses a single, rotating beam of radiation. With a single radiation beam the highest possible dose of radiation is sent directly to the tumour. It allows physicians to adjust the radiation beam to precisely target the tumour of each individual patient. The machine will help to identify the location of each tumour before treatment, target tumours with optimal levels of radiation, minimize the damage to other body parts and reduce the side effects, as per the doctor.
As per the hospital data, at least 100 patients visit the hospital for cancer treatment. The hospital had decided to bring new technology in the hospital as the country has seen steady rise in the number of cancer patients in the recent years.
According to Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, 3,451 new cancer patients were registered at the hospital in the year 2017 alone. The hospital had recorded 3,260 cancer patients in the year 2016.
As per World Health Organisation, cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The number of new cases is expected to rise by about 70 per cent in the next two decades. Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and was responsible for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. Globally, nearly one in six deaths is caused due to cancer.
Almost 70 per cent of deaths from cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries.
