GCRI From 1960-2016

The Glorious Past:

The Gujarat Cancer Society (GCS) was established in 1960 with donation of 5000 rupees as seed money collected from a charity cultural event organized by Inner Wheel Club of Ahmedabad (Rotary Club). The then Governor of Gujarat, H.E. Mehndi Nawab Jung suggested to utilize the donation money as seed value for establishing a cancer hospital in Ahmedabad under Gujarat Cancer Society. Later on with a donation of 55000 £ from Shri M P Shah, a philanthropist from London, and leasing of land from Govt. of Gujarat jointly germinated the seed into M. P. Shah Cancer Hospital in the year 1962, which later metamorphosed over years in 1972 and evolved into an institution of national and international repute as The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute (GCRI). It was started as a small nucleus of 40 indoor patients ultimately expanded to 650 beds with all modern facilities of cancer treatment. It is an exceptional and most successful example of Public Private Partnership (PPP) model depicting a symbiosis between State Government, Non-Government Organization – GCS.

The Brighter Future: Commencement of GCRI under Medicity Amdavad

The new building of GCRI is established by Government of Gujarat under Medicity Civil Hospital Campus plan inaugurated by Shri Narendrabhai Modi, Prime Minister of India on March 4, 2019. The first phase of new building has 590 beds dedicated for adult and paediatric cancer patients. The institute has ultra-modern 4 modular operation theatres, 15 new operation theatres along with minor operation theatres equipped with state of the art gadgets required for all the types of major and minor surgeries for cancer patients. The hospital building is centrally air-conditioned including general wards with energy efficient three star Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment GRIHA. It is equipped with pneumatic tube/transport system to deliver drugs, documents and specimens to and from laboratories, nursing stations and wards. After complete execution of master development plan of the second phase, the hospital indoor strength will be 1000 beds.

Facilities/Services offered:

GCRI is a State Cancer Institute located in Ahmedabad (Gujarat state) and one of the largest cancer care centers of the country with modern cancer facilities for diagnosis and treatment. It is an amalgamation of specialties in surgical oncology, medical oncology, radiation oncology, preventive oncology, paediatric oncology, neuro-oncology, gynec-oncology, radio-diagnosis and nuclear medicine, palliative medicine, laboratory and transfusion medicine, pathology and microbiology. GCRI also provides other allied services like home hospice care, physiotherapy, stoma clinic, speech therapy, cancer health check-up, prosthesis and rehabilitation. It has a dedicated research wing – Cancer Biology which is exclusively involved in basic and clinical research, research training, teaching and interdisciplinary advanced diagnostic services for patient management.

GCRI is equipped with the latest diagnostic and interventional equipment to achieve good quality patient care. The institute has ultra-modern 4 modular operation theatres, 15 new operation theatres along with minor operation theatres equipped with state of the art gadgets required for all the types of major and minor surgeries for cancer patients. The institute has a dedicated bone marrow transplantation unit as a part of medical oncology with experienced medical and paramedical team, clean room type environment and individual laminar bed for patients for post procedure care and management. The IVTC unit is equipped with various flexible fibre-optic video endoscopes for upper GI and lower GI workup. The radio-diagnosis unit has spiral CT scan, 3T MRI, PET scan, and Digital Mammography with tomosynthesis and sterotactic biopsy facility. In near future Digital Radiography machine will be installed. Radiotherapy department of GCRI is fully equipped with two 6MV Elekta linear accelerators and one dual energy high end elute linear accelerator, one Varian 6MV linear accelerator, one cobalt machine, one contact therapy machine, one high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy unit, one microselectron high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy unit, one Varion simulator machine and one Siemens CT simulator machine with facilities for two dimensional conformal radiotherapy (2DCRT), intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), VMAT, IGRT, stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) and stereotactic radio-surgery (SRS), Cyberknife, Tomotherapy, High end dual energy linear accelerator, HDR Cobalt to Brachytherapy unit and Latest model of CT Stimulator. In addition, the institute has most recent technologies in pathology laboratory for cancer diagnosis. The department of laboratory medicine is accredited by NABL (ISO-15189, 2012) that ensures total quality management in laboratory.

Specialty clinics and Tumor Board:

At GCRI we have started region-wise speciality services in Surgical Oncology from July 2016. Three major services are started viz. 1) Head and Neck, Breast, 2) Thorax & Miscellaneous and 3) GI and HPB. Tumor Board activity is being regularly conducted. Other specialties are already working for long time viz., Gynec-Oncology, Uro-Oncology, Ortho-Oncology, Pediatric Oncology, Neuro-Oncology, and Plastic and Reconstructive department.

Research & Development:

The institute promotes basic research at 6 well equipped research laboratories on preventive aspects as well as various aspects of cancer biology to help early diagnosis, monitoring, prognostication and cancer management. Various research projects have been approved by national and international agencies such as – National Cancer Institute (NCI), IARC, DST, DBT, CSIR, ICMR, DAE, GSBTM, DMER, GUJCOST, GCS and agencies from USA & GERMANY. More than 500 research papers have been published in peer reviewed journals and GCRI staff members have also received several meritorious awards in National and International forum.

Current Academic Status:

GCRI is affiliated with B J Medical College under Gujarat University for several post graduate and super specialty courses in oncology like DM (Medical Oncology, Onco-Pathology), M.Ch. (Surgical Oncology, Gynec Oncology), and MD (Anaesthesiology, Radiology, Radiotherapy, Palliative Medicine). Besides this it offers M.Sc. in Cancer Biology, M Phil in Life Sciences, Ph.D. in Life Science and M.Sc. in Medical Physics recognized by Gujarat University. It also offers diploma in medical laboratory technology and radiotherapy technologist certification. The mandate of GCRI is to excel as a regional centre for treatment, research and education in cancer. It has provided large number of skilled human resources in medical services across the nation. GCRI has total 160 students among all specialities at a given time.

Community Oncology Centre:

In order to fulfil its social commitments and to create awareness in prevention and early diagnosis of cancer, the Institute has established Community Oncology Centre that offers cancer related health check-up programs, permanent cancer exhibition, high-tech mobile cancer detection van (Sanjeevani Rath) de-addiction clinic, public and professional activities related to cancer awareness and hospice centre (6 cottages) for terminally ill cancer patients.

Government Schemes:

GCRI is committed to provide latest facilities and cancer care at affordable cost to patients of state and neighbouring states. GCRI has set a priority to provide maximum support to all patients with curable cancer and optimum support to those with advanced disease. As a regional cancer centre the institute has taken up leadership in the state cancer control program. It provides services to all class of patients e.g. Ayushman Bharat (PM-JAY), MA & MA Vatsalya Yojna, School Health, SC/ST, State & Central Govt. employee, Pensioner, freedom fighter, ESIS & LIG etc. It provides modern cancer care at an affordable cost to all class of people including patients overseas. It is the most affordable centre for Bone Marrow Transplantation in malignant and non-malignant conditions.

Transformation of GCRI from RCC to State Cancer Institute (SCI):

The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute (GCRI) is now the State Cancer Institute (SCI) recognized by Govt. of India for the state of Gujarat with additional benefits and added responsibility by extending support to tertiary cancer centres (TCC) coming under GCRI. GCRI may extend support in establishing and making the new TCCs functional at Bhavnagar, Surat, Vadodara, etc. as it is currently managing Siddhpur and Rajkot Cancer Centres.

Future Directions:

GCRI believes that the world class cancer care research, state of the art therapeutic efforts as well as intensive and extensive educational efforts towards prevention, detection, treatment and palliation in the field of cancer will improve the quality of life of all those who suffer from the dreaded disease. It believes in collaborations with other cancer organizations, research laboratories and pharma-research for a better tomorrow. We are committed to take all those steps that can prevent cancer and above all to make our world cancer free. We remain united in our untiring efforts at every level, to bring down the burden of this disease and lessen the sufferings, as we march on in this war against cancer. GCRI will become a clinical research hub for national and international drug trials. To facilitate this, a clinical research wing will be established where many clinical trials for newer drug and treatment modalities are undertaken. Future expansion would include establishing cyclotron & proton beam therapy.