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Kerala to use the Internet to fight cancer

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala will soon use the Internet to 'treat' cancer patients. A unique information-based treatment module is being launched by the Regional Cancer Centre here making the necessary info and advice available to cancer patients at the click of a mouse.

Cancer Net Kerala will be one of the first Internet-based networks to not just dish out information but also act as a surveillance and follow-up mechanism. Once the patient is through with his or her prescribed course of chemotherapy, the follow-up would be done through the Net. With the commissioning of the project, Kerala would become the first Indian state to have such a specialised medical network. Patients can log in and send their current health status to the RCC, which would in turn advice the patient what to do and only if the need arises will they have to physically go to the centre.

Dr Cherian Varghese, who is in-charge of the project, told rediff.com that Cancer Net Kerala will be the first dynamic Web-based consultation in this sphere anywhere in the world. "Even advanced countries have not exploited information technology to provide such consultations through the Web," he said. Dr Cherian said that the RCC would have its own server, domain and dedicated fibre-optic line for the project. He said that once the project is in place the hospital would be able to reduce the rush of patients and help doctors save time.

The technology is being developed jointly by the RCC and the Electronics Research and Development Corporation and is likely to be a millennium gift for the people of the state whose health standards are on par with that of the developed world. The project aims at linking the RCC with its four sub-centres in Ernakulam, Palakkad, Kannur and Kollam by establishing a fibre-optic for online access of information and advice on cancer treatment. This would complement the visit of specialist doctors from the RCC to the sub-centres.

The biggest beneficiary would be the patient. Once the project is commissioned, those in other parts of the state can seek cancer treatment or post-treatment advice from the sub-centres instead of coming all the way to Thiruvananthapuram. The RCC will have a panel of doctors for this purpose.

At present, the RCC sends pathology slides and other patient data by mail or fax to the Bombay Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital which has a Patient Data Query system. The RCC is also seeking help from the University College Hospital in London for a laser treatment programme. The doctors too, through the Cancer Net, get to constantly update their knowledge, keep track of conferences and get the latest updates on their specialisation.

The RCC would also bring out an international journal aimed at providing an international forum for a continuing debate on cancer in the developing countries. Named The Asian Journal of Cancer , the new venture is touted as "Asia's first international cancer journal." It would be brought out by a group of experts from 50 countries, with the RCC playing the role of a co-ordinator. President K R Narayanan is reported to have agreed to release the inaugural issue early next year.

Almost all of the 100-odd international journals on the scourge are based in the West. "Often, the information we get from international journals does not concern the spectrum of cancers that we see," says RCC Director Dr M Krishnan Nair, who is also the Chairman of the Advisory Board for the proposed journal. "Moreover, what the West advocates in terms of cancer care is high-tech, pharmaceutical-oriented therapy, which is beyond the reach of developing countries," he adds.

Most of the research going on in the West concerns cancers of the breast, colon, prostate or the lungs, while many developing countries have been grappling with cancers of the uterine cervix, head-and-neck and childhood malignancies. The developing countries, including India, should be seeking to evolve simpler and less expensive modes of treatment as their share of the world's resources for health care is a bare five per cent, Nair argued.

The inaugural issue of the journal would have about 30 articles, including scientific papers. Among the contributors are experts from Chile, Denmark, Vietnam, Ireland, Turkey, Sudan, Ghana, Taiwan, Greece, Peru and Jordan besides France, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden and Japan. The 100-odd-page journal is expected to be brought out at least once in three months.

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