Kolhapur Cancer Centre and Oncoshot Open Cancer Clinical Trial Access to Rural India

Nilesh Atre, 1 March 2023

From left to right: Dr Reshma Pawar, Dr Nilesh Atre, and Dr Suraj Pawar at KCC.

After a three-year hiatus due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Kolhapur Cancer Centre (KCC) is proud to say that it has finally commenced operations in its collaborative journey with Oncoshot India since the MOU signing which took place in October 2019. The two organisations were represented by Dr Reshma Pawar, executive director of KCC and Dr Nilesh Atre, managing director of Oncoshot India. This MOU was the first of many for Oncoshot.

“We started our first discussions with Dr Nilesh Atre and Oncoshot in early 2019. Since then, we have come a long way to become close, collaborative partners with Oncoshot India today. Our entire oncologist and clinical research coordinator teams are excited to be working on this pioneering project with Oncoshot in the Indian oncology ecosystem,” said Dr Reshma Pawar about the collaboration with Oncoshot. “We are looking forward to developing long-term benefits using the Oncoshot online platform for the benefit of our cancer patients, their caregivers, and oncologists.”

Dr Nilesh with the oncology team at KCC.

KCC was opened in 2003 by surgical oncologist Dr Suraj Pawar with the vision of building a comprehensive cancer care centre that provided cancer treatment and services with all under one roof. After receiving his training from Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, USA, Dr Suraj followed his desire to practice in the rural region of southwest Maharashtra to serve the neediest cancer patients for whom treatment was not the most accessible while ensuring the quality of these treatments is not compromised.

The incidence of cancer in South-West Maharashtra is higher than the national average, and there has been a significant increase in cancer cases in recent years. Rural areas often have limited access to healthcare facilities, and even when they are available, they may not have the necessary resources to diagnose and treat cancer. Cancer patients from villages and smaller cities typically need to travel out to major cities for treatment, which can be a significant barrier to receiving timely and appropriate care. Furthermore, these patients often present late at tertiary care centres (TCCs) due to financial constraints and cultural barriers. While the incidence of cancer in rural India is nearly half of that of urban India, the mortality rates are double due to the lack of adequate healthcare facilities, awareness about cancer and its risk factors, and limited access to cancer screening and treatment services. This needs to change, considering that 70% of the Indian population is rural.

Since its establishment, KCC has grown from a small hospital to a TCC that handles nearly all aspects of cancer care: prevention, awareness creation, screening, diagnosis, treatment, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. KCC provides highly advanced technology-based cancer care with its two Versa HD radiotherapy units - a revolutionary linear accelerator that allows safe and effective delivery of conventional radiation therapies to treat a broad spectrum of tumors throughout the body, with extreme targeting precision. It also has a state-of-the-art, robotics-assisted oncology unit called Robosurg, operated by a team of oncosurgeons specially trained in robotics onco-surgery.

Drs Nilesh and Suraj Pawar in front of KCC's two Versa HD radiotherapy unit.

While nearly 30,000 patients have received treatment at KCC, 80% of them did not have to pay with the help of CSCRF and various government schemes, helping Dr Suraj achieve his goal of giving back to society with his hospital. Apart from Kolhapur, patients from Satara, Karad, Sangli, Miraj, and Konkan, the deeper parts of Maharashtra, Goa and North Karnataka have benefitted from the treatment services.