Touted as the largest cancer hospital in India, the National Cancer Institute in Haryana's Jhajjar district would be opened to public by the third week of January, Union Health Minister JP Nadda said on December 25.



The institute, being considered as a landmark in the field of cancer research in the country, shall lessen the deficit of tertiary cancer care in the northern region. "The National Cancer Institute in Jhajjar would be dedicated by the third week of January," Nadda said at an event in AIIMS hospital in Delhi.

The institute will have 710 beds, out of which 200 beds will be dedicated for translational research on India-specific cancers. Outpatient department or OPD services were partially started last week. Different facilities such as surgical oncology, radiation oncology, medical oncology, anaesthesia and palliative care and nuclear medicine will be available at the institute. It will also have the first-of-its-kind tissue repository in India.

The institute, which will operate under the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, was approved by the Manmohan Singh government in 2013 and has been built at a cost of Rs 2,035 crore. There will be 372 units of flats and 1,080 hostel rooms for staff members. A night shelter with a capacity of 800 units meant for patient attendants have also been planned.

There are more than 80 lakh cancer patients in the world. Nearly 29 lakh of them are in India. About 11 lakh cancer cases are detected every year. With a view to prevent and cure cancer, the government decided to set up the new institute of advance research activities.

The institute, coming up in Badhsa village, will operate on the lines of National Cancer Institute in the US and German Cancer Research Centre (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum) DKFZ as a nodal centre for indigenous research, promotive, preventive and curative aspects of care and human resource development.

The institute is aimed to plan, conduct and coordinate research on cancers which are more specific to India like tobacco-related cancers, cancer of the uterine cervix, gall bladder cancer and liver cancers. The focus will be on understanding and analyzing the cause and genesis of these type of cancers, the government has said.