Multi-disciplinary cancer care for patients at SVIMS soon

Tirupati: On the occasion of World Cancer Day, SVIMS Director Dr TS Ravikumar announced the launch of SVIMS Institute of Cancer and Allied Sciences at a meeting organised at Sri Padmavathi Auditorium on Saturday.

It was one of the ten institutes of excellence proposed by Dr Ravikumar in the roadmap of SVIMS. Significantly, it was the only institute in AP with training programmes in all three specialities–Medical Oncology (DM), Surgical Oncology (MCh) and Radiation Oncology (MD) and with the launch of Institute of Cancer and Allied Sciences it can provide multi-disciplinary cancer care at one stop.

The institute aims to provide cancer control, screening, prevention, early diagnosis and palliative care services to the patients. Disease specific clinics will be organised in addition to general outpatient services for better patient care delivery.

Cancer Research is one of the focus areas of this institute and the programmes that will be undertaken in SVIMS Centre for Advanced Research (CfAR) are – Molecular Virology of cancer (Human Papilloma Virus & Cervix/Oral cancers); Genes, Environment and Behaviour (gene expression profile in breast, brain and other cancer, tobacco cessation); Biotechnology and Bio-informatics. 

A cancer screening camp aided by Pink Bus was also organised by SVIMS at Community Health Centre (CHC) in Naravaripalli on Saturday. The team of doctors, students, nurses from surgical oncology, pathology, radiology, gynaecology, oral dentistry and other departments along with administrative staff participated in the camp. They took rallies in Naravaripalli village and raising the global slogan, ‘I am and I will’ to create cancer awareness and promote cancer prevention among the public. 

During the programme, 115 households were covered in Naravaripalli and Kandulavaripalli in the household survey conducted by 22 teams of SVIMS community medicine faculty, students, nurses and health workers from CHC-Naravaripalli to assess the incidence and prevalence of cancer.