Elekta to launch India’ first MR Linac to treat cancer patients

Hyderabad, June 19 : Sweden-based Elekta, a leader in precision radiation therapy, on Monday announced the launch of India’s first MR Linacon Tuesday to treat cancer patients.

The latest and advanced technology MR machine was developed and designed by Elekta which has manufacturing facilities globally.

Currently, the radiation therapy regimen or schedule usually consists of a specific number of treatments given over a prescribed period but through the latest machine, time would be saved save and the number of treatments would be reduced, said Manikandan Bala, Managing director, Elekta India and Senior Vice-President, Intercontinental, here.

Radiation therapy is the treatment method of using high-energy radiation to pinpoint and destroy cancer cells, he said though required 50 per cent radiotherapy for the patients in India , only doing less than 18 per cent due lack of sufficient machines.

World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines suggest that for India, there should be one radiotherapy machine per million people but there are currently around 650 making it a little less than 0.5 per million, he informed.

Of those cancer patients who are treated, it is estimated that around 50 per cent are treated by surgery, about 40 per cent by radiotherapy alone (or combined with other surgery/chemotherapy) and 10 per cent by chemotherapy alone or combined with (radiotherapy/Surgery), said Manikandan.

In 2020 alone, there were estimated 13.25 lakh new cases of cancer in the county, resulting in 8.5 lakh cancer related deaths, However, Telangana alone is expected to have more than 53,000 new cancer cases by 2025 as per the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR). The report registered an increase by 1.48 per cent within the next three years, he informed.