Daily Times

A second top-of-the-line Varian True Beam linear accelerator with stereotactic radiosurgery capability was inaugurated Wednesday at the Department of Clinical and Radiation Oncology at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC), Lahore.

The ribbon cutting and plaque unveiling was performed by a young cancer patient, Nisar Ahmed, along with acting CEO of SKMCH&RC, Dr Muhammed Aasim Yusuf. On this occasion, Dr Yusuf thanked all the generous donors for supporting SKMCH&RC’s mission of fighting cancer, especially supporters in Canada, who funded this new and most advanced linear accelerator. He said, “At SKMCH&RC, we aim to continuously upgrade our equipment and technology, so as to be able to provide the best possible treatment to all our patients. The addition of this new technology at our hospital in Lahore will cater to the ever-increasing number of cancer patients needing radiation therapy with a high degree of accuracy, precision and speed.”

Dr Yusuf said, “As Ramzan approaches, I would like to urge people to support SKMCH&RC’s mission of providing equitable access to quality treatment to all patients. We treat Zakat as a sacred trust, and have always taken all possible steps to ensure that the utilisation of Zakat complies with Islamic injunctions regarding utilisation for Zakat-eligible patients. We hope that our supporters will continue to donate generously, enabling us to offer world class treatment to thousands of deserving cancer patients at our hospitals in Lahore and Peshawar, where we continue to treat more than 75% of our patients free of charge, but also at our third, and Pakistan’s largest, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, currently under construction in Karachi, which is expected to open to patients at the end of 2023.”

Dr Tabinda Sadaf, Head of Clinical & Radiation Oncology Department at SKMCH&RC, Lahore said that with five linear accelerators, this is the largest such department in the country, delivering more than 50,000 radiation therapy sessions each year. The True Beam linear accelerator is capable of delivering radiation therapy using a precisely focused radiation beam to treat tumours, as well as other abnormalities, in the brain, neck, lungs, liver, spine and other areas.Real-time tumour tracking enableshighly conformal andtargeted radiotherapywith precision of less than 1mm, sparing normal tissues around the tumour. She also added that the new accelerator is three times faster than conventional linear accelerator with each treatment typically lasting less than two minutes.