Carethics

India might see a paradigm shift in the way cancer is treated here with the introduction of John R. Adler’s machine CyberKnife. Cyerknife is a robotic radiosurgery system that can treat tumours in any part of the body and each machine costs Rs 30 crore.

As per livemint.com, recently CyberKnife was installed at Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd. (HCG) in Bangalore and at Apollo Speciality Cancer Hospital in Chennai, the only two machines in south Asia according to the Indian owners. The device delivers precise radiation doses thus avoiding healthy tissues and uses real time image guidance technology for the same. It is also proposed that the machine is safe and has reduced side effects as compared to other existing treatments.

The treatment costs Rs 4-5 lakhs, as compared to Rs 50,000-Rs1.5 lakhs for a standard radiation therapy. However, Adler argues that one should look at the quality aspects too. A six-seven week radiation therapy is reduced to a five-six day out-patient procedure and there are fewer side effects. Besides as volumes grow, costs will come down and health care service providers can adopt different business models to offer the technology to their patients.