President to dedicate Bhabhatron-II to nation

Hyderabad, Dec 10: President A P J Abdul Kalam will tomorrow dedicate to the nation Bhabhatron-II, the teletherapy machine developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), at a function in the Indian Red Cross Society Cancer Hospital (IRCS) at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.

This would facilitate treatment of cancer patients in Nellore and nearby areas who otherwise have to travel to distant places, a BARC release said here today.

Considering the growing demand for affordable radiotherapy machines, BARC's Division of Remote Handling and Robotics (DRHR) had taken up indigenisation of cobalt teletherapy technology.

After the successful development of the machine, the technology was transferred to Panacea Medical Technologies Pvt Ltd for commercialisation.

The collaboration resulted in an improved version of the machine-- Bhabhatron-II. A few more machines were being manufactured for other cancer hospitals in the country.

Bhabhatron-II not only sports superior features but is significantly cheaper than imported machines thereby enabling smaller hospitals buy the equipment.

The machine is expected to result in reduction of treatment cost besides enabling such facility to be extended to rural areas.

Every year over eight lakh new cancer cases are detected and more than five lakh deaths occur due to the disease.

UNI