The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College and Hospital (KYAMCH) in Sirajganj, the country's largest private hospital, has installed the latest Electa Synergy Model equipment, which helps locate any cancer-affected tissue accurately and then cure it with radiotherapy.

The Electa Synergy Model equipment has been procured from Electa Ltd, a world-famous medical equipment producer that first manufactured the cancer treatment machine, 'Linear Accelerator'.

The equipment, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, is used to take a 3-dimension (3D) image of a cancer-affected tissue. The image helps locate the cancer-affected tissue accurately and cure it with radiotherapy without affecting other tissues around it.

Since setting up of the cancer unit in September last year, 50 patients have so far been treated successfully. The unit is run under the supervision of country's leading oncology specialist Dr Md Abdul Hai.

Besides, the hospital has been providing all kinds of treatment, including world-class open heart and bypass surgeries, at a low cost. Set up in 2004 under Khwaja Yunus Ali Trust, the 500-bed hospital is run on no-profit basis. It has set up the cancer centre to offer world-class cancer treatment at affordable cost to the country's cancer patients who cannot afford treatment abroad. The KYAMCH cancer centre, comprising departments like medical oncology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, palliative and terminal care medicine, has four blocks-two of male and two of female for cancer patients apart from 10 cabins. Talking to reporters at the hospital recently, Mohammad Yusuf, director of the hospital, said the digitally- controlled linear accelerator solutions can apply radiation on the only cancer-affected cells, keeping the unaffected ones unharmed.

He said no cancer patient needs to go abroad for treatment as their hospital offers the state-of-the-art treatment.

"Medical institutes like Dhaka Medical College are sending graduate doctors to our hospital for internship seeing our cancer treatment facilities. And we hope cancer patients will come to us for treatment instead of going abroad," he hopes.

Yusuf said KYAMCH is in the process of building collaboration with top-ranking medical institutions in different countries to keep abreast with the latest technology in cancer treatment.