Dr. Shahryar speaks about rising cases of cancer in Pakistan, Photo: Views and News
Asia’s second largest cancer treatment hospital – a charitable endeavor – will start providing free of cost treatment to patients of the disease in Lahore this year in the face of rapid rise in the number of deaths from the deadly disease.
Dr. Shahryar, founder of the Cancer Care Hospital and Research Center, told a fund raiser in Springfield Virginia that Pakistan estimably adds more than 300,000 new cancer patients every year.
As project ambassador for North America, Dr. Zulfiqar Kazmi introduced the humanitarian cause to Pakistani-Americans, who contributed generously to the organization which has been registered as a non-profit in the United States.
In Pakistan, a spate of factors including a lack of healthcare services in general and cancer treatment facilities in particular, social attitudes and expensive cancer treatment result in 60 % to 80% of patients losing their lives.
Dr. Zulfiqar Kazmi speaking at the event
A large number of the new patients are women who develop breast cancer and end up in fatal final phase as they do not get the necessary healthcare attention at early curable time.
Dr. Shahryar says the facility, to spread over 27 acres, will have 400 beds and state-of-the-art equipment including radiation machines to make sure that the patients get the best possible care and treatment.
The people of Pakistan – both within the country and a large diaspora in several parts of the world – have embraced the project and contributed to the humanitarian cause, the project founder says.
Dr. Hammad Raza Sheikh, an oncoplastic, reconstructive breast surgeon, trained in the United Kingdom, has joined the hospital.
A young Pakistani-American girl presenting a donation to Dr Shahryar
Under the project, experts have already been providing mammography services with the help of one screening machine at Hijaz Hospital in Lahore and two mobile facilities. Director of the project Mrs. Ghazala Tariq also attended the event, where Fida Shah, a cancer survivor and a prominent member of the Pakistani-American community in Washington area, also spoke in favor of the humanitarian cause.
Between April 2016 and March 2018, the hospital has performed 15600 mammography screen tests, 1175 ultrasound tests, 115 biopsies and detected and treated 62 patients, the founder of the project says.
Pakistan has two major facilities – Shaukat Khanum Memorial hospitals in Lahore and Peshawar- to provide free of cost cancer treatment to patients,.
According to CCH-RC doctors, it is now after two decades and an exponential growth in population, that a large hospital will start providing cost-free treatment to cancer patients.
There are some other public and private sector treatment and research facilities, but according to experts, these are still far from being enough to diagnose and treat patients in a population of over 200 million people.
Appreciate the spirit behind the establishment of the facility meant to provide needed interventions free of cost, however,experiences over the years has shown that there is nothing free. Moreover, there is urgent need to focus on prevention of the ailment itself.