General Info

Regional Cancer Centre, JIPMER

The anti-cancer services to patients visiting Puducherry from various cities and villages has been offered by Department of Radiation Oncology (previously Radiotherapy) in JIPMER since 1964. It was accorded the status of Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in the year 2002. The department of Medical Oncology was created a few years after JIPMER became autonomous in 2008. The centre offers various anti-cancer services to 3000 new cancer patients and around 40,000 patients on follow-up every year. A majority of them include those with cancers of the Uterine Cervix, Head & Neck, Breast, Leukemia and Lymphomas. Advanced Radiation Treatment techniques namely Image-Guided External Radiation, Intensity Modulated Radiation and Image-guided Brachytherapy are being offered using State-of-the-Art treatment machines. Autogenic and allogeneic Bone-Marrow Transplantation services are also offered besides anti-cancer systemic therapy (chemotherapy and immunotherapy) for haematological cancers and various other common cancers.

The centre is in phase 3 of expansion to include the departments of Surgical Oncology, Nuclear Medicine both already running in JIPMER under one common roof. Newer services like palliative and preventive oncology will also be included soon. The aim of the centre is to deliver the best possible care to patients with all the available resources, to impart high-quality training to postgraduate residents and fellows as well as to contribute in making RCC JIPMER, a leader in Oncology in the world while retaining good team spirit with all collaborating departments of the Regional Cancer Centre and JIPMER.

Milestones in Development of RCC JIPMER

  • 1964 – Setting up of radiology Department in JIPMER and provision of one Cobalt-60 teletherapy unit under “Colombo Plan”
  • 1971 – Preloaded brachytherapy facilities started at JIPMER using radium & caesium sources.
  • 1980 – BARC manual loading kit for brachytherapy used.
  • 1982 – 1st computerized treatment planning.
  • 1987 – Department of Radiology bifurcated into Departments of Radio-Diagnosis and Radiotherapy.
  • 1993 – Theratron 780C teletherapy unit commissioned in JIPMER Radiotherapy department.
  • 1996 – High dose rate after loading brachytherapy commissioned.
  • 2002 – Department of Radiotherapy JIPMER accorded RCC status.
  • 2004 – Single energy linear accelerator commissioned in RCC JIPMER.
  • 2006 – A 30 bedded oncology ward started.
  • 2008 – Commissioning of X-Ray simulator; new RCC building completed & commissioned with 82 beds & day care centre.
  • 2008 – Hosted AMPICON (Annual Conference of Association of Medical Physicists of India, TN & PY Chapter).
  • 2009 – Starting of Dept of Medical Oncology from new RCC building.
    • May: 1st batch of MD (Radiotherapy) students enrolled.
    • 1st RCC – CME held in September.
  • 2010 – Addition of new faculty, medical physics staff.
    • April: 2nd RCC CME held on Gynecological cancers & Nursing care in oncology.
    • August: 3rd RCC CME on Breast cancers.
    • August: 1st batch of B.Sc Medical Radiation technology students enrolled.
    • November: 4th RCC CME on Head & Neck cancers held.
  • 2011 – New equipment block started in RCC with new ARIA TPS, CLINAC iX linear accelerator, GammaMed Plus iX HDR, T simulator.
    • Telemedicine facilities started with link up with GH Yanam, Mandya, Kidwai Institute Bangalore & Kancheepuram for practitioners to directly consult experts in JIPMER without having to send their patients over.
    • April: 5th RCC CME on Bladder & prostate cancers held.
    • May: Number of MD (RT) students increased per year to 4.
    • August: 6th RCC CME on Gliomas held.
    • August: 1st batch of medical oncology DM fellows enrolled.
    • 1st 3D-CRT treatments started in November 2011.
  • 2012 – January: 1st IMRT treatments started;
    • February: 1st Rapid Arc treatments started.
    • March: 7th RCC CME held on epithelial ovarian malignancies.
    • April: 8th RCC CME held on palliative care.
    • September: On-Board Imager (OBI) installed, Stereotactic RT enabled, Special ward with ICU facility started
    • October: The Department of Radiotherapy, RCC-JIPMER hosted (AROITNPYCON-2012) annual conference of Association of Radiation Oncologists India (TN & PY chapter).
  • 2013 – January: 1st Bone Marrow Transplant treatment started.
  • 2015 – Digital archive of Radiotherapy records started
  • 2018 - Completion of
  • 2019 – Intranet website for records of Radiation Oncology patients started

List of Facilities presently available at RCC JIPMER

  • High precision dual energy linear accelerator CLINAC iX with OBI and ECLIPSE version 10.0 TPS capable of 3D-CRT,
  • IMRT, IGRT, VMAT, Electron therapy
  • SBRT, Frameless stereotactic radio-surgery.
  • Cobalt-60 teletherapy unit - bhabhatron
  • ELEKTA micro-selectron HDR brachytherapy unit.
  • Varian Gamma Med Plus iX HDR brachytherapy unit.
  • Bone marrow transplant facility.
  • CT-simulator
  • X-Ray simulator.
  • One 500 mA X-Ray unit; one 100 mA mobile X-ray unit.
  • Brachytherapy
    • Intra-cavitary
    • Intra-luminal
    • Interstitial
    • mould therapy.
  • Both Day Care & In-patient chemotherapy services
  • Blood irradiation for transplant of stem cells.
Last Updated :15-Mar-2023