Excelsior Correspondent
KATRA, Dec 9: Cancer patients in the Jammu and Kashmir region and other Northern States will now have a new brachytherapy program at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Superspeciality (SMVDNS) Hospital located at Kakryal in Katra, allowing cancer patients to be treated for radiotherapy over a shorter period of time and closer to home.
Brachytherapy is an advanced cancer treatment wherein radioactive sources are placed in or near the tumor itself, giving a high radiation dose to the tumor while reducing the radiation exposure in the surrounding healthy tissues. The radioactive implants are inserted directly into the tissue.
Equipped with a radiotherapy cancer treatment centre, the new program at SMVDNS Hospital will offer the most advanced treatment for cervical, prostate, breast, as well as skin cancer and can also be used to treat tumours in many other body sites.
Brachytherapy is very effective in treating cancer, as the radiation is delivered with a high level of accuracy. It also minimized risk of side effects, due to the targeted and precise nature of delivering the radiotherapy from inside the body.
It is a minimally invasive technique – i.e. it doesn’t involve extensive surgery. The brachytherapy requires very short treatment times, typically from 1 to 5 days and also has short recovery times (typically 2 to 5 days) – people can usually return to normal activities very quickly.
“Brachytherapy is a form of radiotherapy where a sealed radiation source is placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment” said Dr Vikas Roshan, Consultant Radiation Oncology, SMVDNS Hospital.
Dr Roshan further explained that brachytherapy is a painless procedure that can cure gynaecological cancers, early head and neck cancers, penile cancer, skin cancers and oesophageal cancers.
He informed that patients typically have to make fewer visits to the radiotherapy clinic and the treatment is often performed on an outpatient basis. This makes treatment accessible and convenient for many patients.
He added that due to lack of medical facilities in Jammu and Kashmir initially patients had to travel to Punjab and Delhi for this treatment, but now it is available at SMVDNS Hospital near Katra in Jammu.
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