KARACHI - The formal opening of the country's first free of cost PET/CT Cyclotron facility which is used for detection and treatment of cancer patients will be formally inaugurated at the SIUT's Mehrunissa Medical Center of Korangi on Wednesday.
The facility has become operational since December last year while important aspect of the facility is that it is the first installation in any public hospital of the country. Position Emission Tomography popularly known as PET/CT is the backbone of all oncology treatment. It helps the doctors to diagnose the stages of cancer and helps to decide methodology required for the treatment.
Currently there are five PET/CT Scanners throughout the country which includes two in Lahore and three in Karachi. In comparison with other developing countries there are 150 in neighboring India. A single session of PET/CT session cost around Rs45 to Rs60 thousand in private hospitals while SIUT is the only medical establishment in the country which provides this state of the art medical service free of cost.
The Sindh government extended wholehearted support to SIUT in installing the specialized medical treatment facility as this facility will go a long way in treating the patients coming from interior of the province and other parts of the country.
Cancer is a major health issue all over the world and presently the second leading cause of death in developed countries while in developing world the issue is equally alarming as more than six out of deaths are caused by cancer.
To tackle the problem, the SIUT had started renal oncology services in 1989 which handled urological malignancies of urinary tracks, bladder, prostrate and other related cancers.
To meet the growing number of patients, the SIUT established a full fledged center in 2002 and the facility came from Suleman Dawood's family. The seven story structure is now known as Hanifa Suleman Dawood Urology Transplant Center equipped with 100 bed facility.