KMC Hospital Attavar upgrades comprehensive cancer care services

Mangaluru: KMC Hospital Attavar, on the occasion of completing 25 successful years of providing clinical services and the first hospital in Dakshina Kannada district to start a comprehensive cancer care center, has upgraded its Linear Accelerator with Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment for cancer patients, which gives a modern touch to functionalised and continual improvement of cancer care. 

The uniqueness of IMRT compared to conventional and traditional mode of radiotherapy treatment is that specialists can give more dose to the tumor and less dose to the surrounding normal structure. It helps almost all types of solid tumors of head and neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis and brain.

Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) is one of the foundations upon which modern precision radiation delivery stands. It is an advanced technique wherein an individual beam of radiation is manipulated under computer control based on various constraints (eg maximum permissible dose to surrounding critical radiosensitive organs) defined by the clinical oncologist. The intensity of each beam is thus precisely controlled by dividing it into multiple small beam lets, and the shape of the beam changes throughout each treatment.

The goal of IMRT is to conform the radiation dose to the target tissue volume while avoiding or reducing exposure of surrounding healthy tissue with an aim to limit the side effects of treatment.

Dr Anand Venugopal, medical superintendent of KMC Hospitals Mangaluru said, "We will not compromise with the quality and KMC Hospitals has always been a pioneer in top quality medical care, be it equipment or competitive doctors as well as highly trained personnel comparable with the world class standards."