Apollo Cancer Centres & Apollo Proton Cancer Centres, A Ray Of Hope To Patients From Across The World

Chennai: Apollo Cancer Centres (ACC), ranked among the top super specialty hospitals, offering advanced tertiary care in Oncology, Neurology, and Neurosurgery, among others, gives a new ray of hope to international patients from Chile, Iran, Myanmar & Sri Lanka who were diagnosed with various cancer diseases. Hon’ble Tamil Nadu Health Minister Thiru. Ma Subramanian visited Apollo Proton Cancer Centre and interacted with International patients on their visit to Chennai for Cancer treatment in the presence of Ms Preetha Reddy, Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, Mr Harshad Reddy, Director-Operations, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, among other dignitaries.

Post interacting with the International patients, Thiru Ma Subramanian, Minister for Health and Family Welfare of Tamil Nadu said, “Chennai is one of the most popular destinations in India providing state-of-the-art medical care to critical patients traveling many miles with the hope of specialized treatment. I am happy to see the technological advancements, specialized treatment, and care offered by Apollo Hospitals that exemplify the standards that make Chennai one of the most popular destinations for medical treatment. The positive experience, successful treatment and supportive care experienced by these International patients will result in many more patients choosing Chennai for their medical value treatment”.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Preetha Reddy, Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, said, “At Apollo, we are happy to be setting new standards in cancer care with the latest technology, skilled cancer management teams (CMT) and supportive care that has led to patients all the way from South America flying to Chennai for best possible treatment with utmost care. This is one of the first such patient who has travelled 40+ hours to get treated by our experienced team. I am confident, his journey and successful treatment will pave way for many more discerning patients to choose quality and affordable treatment offered in Chennai at Apollo Cancer Centres. It reaffirms that Chennai continues to be one of the most important hubs for medical value travel in the country and Apollo Cancer Centres prides in bringing latest drugs, therapies and technology adoption to enhance the future of cancer care to patients.

Apollo Cancer Centres recently saw a surge in International patients visiting for Cancer treatment from different parts of the world. For the first time, a patient from Chile travelled over 16229 Kms to seek treatment in Apollo Proton Cancer Centre at these challenging times. A 58 years old gentleman, an Engineer by profession, had history of a skull base lesion that was noted when he had problems in vision. It was treated in 2012 with radiotherapy at Chile, following which he was alright till 2021, but soon started developing symptoms which threatened his vision. He immediately approached his local surgeon, where he was found to have disease progression, deemed inoperable due to the critical structures located nearby, and he has advised radiotherapy, preferably proton beam therapy in view of irradiation to the same site. He then approached Apollo Proton Cancer center and travelled all the way from South America to Chennai for proton beam therapy last month.

Sharing his happiness on the treatment received, Mr. Juan Francisco Paladines, from Chile said, “The resurgence of a lesion in a critical site made standard radiotherapy a difficult option. I was suggested to explore Proton beam therapy in view of the reirradiation to the same site. My search for the best proton therapy led me to travel to Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, Chennai, India. Under the care of the Neuro-Oncology Cancer Management team at Apollo, I was offered high precision radiotherapy using the finest and modern image-guided, pencil beam scanning proton beam therapy and have successfully completed the treatment resulting in vision getting preserved. I am grateful to the team of oncologists, support team and members of Apollo for their support through this journey.”

Another patient, a 72year old woman from Myanmar was diagnosed with Recurrent Skull Base Meningioma. Before visiting India, the patient was diagnosed in Singapore and Left sphenoidal ridge tumor was detected on doing CT Neck in July 2014 during assessment for Thyroidectomy. Later further evaluation for this tumor was done at NUH Singapore and the Neuro Surgeon then recommended for conservative treatment and advised regular follow up with the impression of Meningioma. On 30 August 2016 because of failing vision of the left eye decided and did subtotal excision of the tumor by Consultant Neuro Surgeon Prof. Tin Htun Aung at Pun Hlaing Hospital in Yangon Myanmar. The patient sister in law also a Medical Oncologist from Myanmar, approached Apollo Cancer Centre for a cyber-knife surgery. 

Prof Yin Yin Htun, Medical Oncologist and sister in law of the Myanmar patient, said “As I’m an oncologist by profession we know the facilities available at Apollo Cancer Centre in Chennai, India. Apollo Cancer Centre has all the latest technology for Cancer treatment when compared to other countries. We are very much happy with the care provided by the team and the opinion from experts here.”