Low cost surgery for Intra Ocular Tumors developed by BARC, India

Coimbatore, Aug 1 (PT) A very low cost indigenous surgical procedure, developed and manufactured by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has proved a boon to patients suffering from Intra Ocular Tumours which affect the inner layers of the eye, two leading city surgeons said today. The most common ICTs are Retinoblastoma, affecting children less than five years old and Choriodal Melanomas, usually affecting adults and it can spread to other organs and cause death if not treated immediately, Dr V Narendran, Chief, Arvind Eye Hospital and Dr P Guhan, Director, Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Oncology and Research told reporters at a joint press conference here. These tumours are usually treated by enucleation, where the eye is completely removed. Treatment for it through Brachytherapy was very expensive as the imported radioactive plaque surgically placed on the eye's outer surface behind the tumour cost Rs 1.5 lakh. However BARC's 'BARC I-125 Ocu-Prosta seeds', manufactured by the Radipharmaceuticals division of BARC, Mumbai costs just around Rs 15,000, Narendran said. The Institute and Aravind Hospital have been jointly offering brachytherapy to needy patients at very low cost and till date have performed 20 surgeries, with a success rate of 85 per cent, he said. Since the project was in collaboration with BARC, it was supplying I-125 seeds free of cost and the benefit was passed on to patients by the hospitals, they claimed. The treatment results were published in a recent issue of Indian Journal of Opthalmology and the scientific paper was accepted for publication in the International journal 'Cancer Biotherapy and radiopharmaceuticals,' Guhan said. PTI