Indore: Cancer patients in India soon to get proton beam therapy treatment: Chidambaram

Indore: Advocating more use of advanced technology in medical field, principal scientific advisor to Government of India, Dr R Chidambaram here on Tuesday said that soon treatment of cancer patients through proton beam therapy will commence in the country.  “One facility is coming up at Tata Memorial Hospital and another at Apollo Hospital (Chennai). We will also start work on developing the indigenous version of proton beam therapy shortly,” the senior scientist told reporters on the sidelines of the 8th Indian Particle Accelerator Conference (InPAC-2018) which was inaugurated at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT) on Tuesday.

Addressing the conference, he advocated for development of proton therapy and called upon national labs to work in this direction.  Proton therapy is a type of radiation treatment that uses protons to treat cancer. A proton is a positively charged particle. At high energy, protons can destroy cancer cells. The therapy painlessly delivers radiation through the skin from a machine outside the body.  Meanwhile, RRCAT director Dr PA Naik during the inaugural function shed light on importance of the biennial conference which is the biggest platform in India to share new ideas and to review progress on the development of accelerator technology.

In PAC-2018 chairman SC Joshi said that around 430 delegates are participating in the conference representing all the major accelerator laboratories of the country, along with a few experts from accelerator laboratories abroad.

RRCAT facility at DABH Mandi to be operational soon

Chidambaram visited the building of Radiation Processing Facility, which is coming up at Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar (DABH) Fruits and Vegetables Mandi, also known as Choithram Mandi. “This will be the first electronic beam facility in the country,” said RRCAT scientist Jishnu Dwivedi. He stated that the facility will be fully functional in a year. Currently various trials are going on at the unit. “Industrial product sterilisation, medical items sterilisation, and agriculture products radiation will be done at the facility,” Dwivedi said.

“Quality of school education very high in Indore”

Describing Indore as a big centre of education, Dr R Chidambaram said that quality of school education in the state’s commercial capital is very high. “Quality of school education is very high in Indore. It’s not today, but for past many years Indore is maintaining quality of education,” the noted scientist told reporters. He expected that the city will make its mark in higher education as elite institutions like IIM Indore, IIT Indore and RRCAT were here in the city. He also stated that there was a plan to set up Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG) in IIT Indore. “Currently, only old IITs have RuTAG but there is a plan to set up the centres in new IITs as well,” he said. Chidambaram also hailed RRCAT residential colony for emerging as the cleanest locality in the city.

BARC setting up treatment plant at Kabitkhedi

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is setting up a radiation unit at Kabitkhedi sewerage treatment plant for converting dry sledge into fertilizers. The BARC in association with Indore Municipal Corporation is setting up the unit at Kabitkhedi, said scientist at RRCAT Purushottam Shrivastava. He stated that high ionisation of waste would be done at the BARC facility for turning it into fertilizers.