New cancer facility opens at Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Center, Bangalore

Though there are many hospitals investing in cancer care in the country today, there are not many dedicated to cancer cure. According to M K Bhan, secretary, department of biotechnology, there is hardly any quality research being done on cancer in India. However, this scenario could change with a facility offering advanced healthcare that was inaugurated in Bangalore yesterday.

At the inauguration of the Mazumdar-Shaw Centre for Advanced Therapeutics, Bhan said scalable models of affordable healthcare and cancer care were the need of the hour. He said such hospitals would work in close cooperation with charitable foundations to generate resources for funding advanced research.

To underline the concept Bhan cited the example of how he made agriculture companies contribute around Rs10 crore each towards farm research.

Bhan said there was much criticism about agriculture companies investing in advanced science and research. However, he pointed out that the private sector should help fund research.

Adding that increased longevity was also one of factors in the rising incidence of terminal diseases like cancer, he said cancer research needed to be scaled up to ensure health and wellness in the elderly. He urged both the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre and Narayana Hrudalaya hospital to  strive to attain the status of the Stanford University, which is renowned  for  healthcare research, in India.

Dr Devi Shetty, chairman, Narayana Hrudalaya, stressed on the need  to  dissociate healthcare from affluence in the Indian context. "Before we get old, we have to ensure people get access to hi-tech healthcare. We are looking at a 10-year window to do that," he said.