RGCON, the annual international conference of Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre (RGCIRC), recently conducted it 20th edition. The event was held on the theme of “Frontiers in Uro Oncology”. As one-of-its-kind conclave of the medical fraternity, RGCON had faculty from all leading hospitals in India besides the sterling presence of faculties from major cancer care centres around the world.
Chief Guest at the inaugural Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) congratulated Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute for the “excellent work” being done in the field of oncology. “For many individuals, you are the beacon of hope in this part of the world. And I think that is truly remarkable, because we are seeing a rise in cancer patients and to have a hospital like RGCIRC is really a big thing for this part of the world”, Dr Guleria said.
No one really anticipated the magnitude that the pandemic would really have. But it did have one purpose that it put health on the centre stage. As we move from virtual to physical mode, conferences, workshops like RGCON become more and more important, Dr Guleria added.
At RGCIRC, we give great importance to academic activities since we believe knowledge sharing is necessary to obtain better outcomes. This year is a very special one for RGCIRC as we are celebrating our silver anniversary. We recently completed our expansion and we are today 500 bedded hospital with a renowned faculty and state of the art equipment consisting of Robotics, Radiant Tomo Therapy, Interventional Oncology, Cath labs, Molecular labs, bio repositories, BMT as well as the latest digital PET and MRI, said Mr Rakesh Chopra, Chairman RGCIRC.
We at RGCIRC are conscious about the role of early cancer detection, therefore have been involved in cancer prevention for the last many years at the community level. In the last 10 years, more than one hundred thousand patients have been screened. RGCIRC spends about 40 crore rupees per annum on philanthropic activities, said Mr D S Negi, CEO RGCIRC.
We are overwhelmed by the encouraging participation in the RGCON this year. More than 450 delegates participated in the conference. The scientific program included workshops, lectures, and panel discussions/ debates and was designed to include diagnostic as well as therapeutic Uro- Oncology, said Dr Sudhir Rawal, Medical Director RGCIRC.
All the three departments of medical, surgical and radiation oncology at RGCIRC came together to hold RGCON 2022. The teams were led by Dr Vineet Talwar Director – Medical Oncology, Dr Munish Gairola, Director Radiation Oncology and Dr Amitabh Singh, Consultant, Department of Genito-Uro Oncology.
Speaking about the new drug therapies, Dr Vineet Talwar Director – Medical Oncology, RGCIRC said, earlier it used to be only chemotherapy or hormonal therapy for treatment of urinary tract cancers. Increasingly, targeted therapy and immunotherapy are assuming a major role since the side effects of these therapies are far less and translate in improvement in the quality of life.
Radiation oncology as a field has progressed rapidly especially in terms of precision and targeted treatments. One such example is the use of cyberknife that uses hypofractionation; high dose per fraction which reduces treatment time considerably, said Dr Munish Gairola, Director Radiation Oncology, RGCIRC.
According to Dr Amitabh Singh, Consultant, Department of Genito-Uro Oncology at RGCIRC, new techniques for the cancer surgery were a centre of attraction at the RGCON. For instance in case of prostate cancer surgery, Dr. S Rawal demonstrated Retizius Sparing Radical Prostatectomy. For kidney cancers, 3D reconstruction model was discussed.
