In a move that would come as a boon for cancer patients government has given its nod for the setting up of a Rs 450 crore specialised therapy facility at the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) hospital in Mumbai.

The state-of-the-art Hadron Beam Therapy Centre in the country, to be developed by the Department of Atomic Energy, recently received the go ahead from the Cabinet Committee on Security.

Apart from the Hadron Therapy Centre, a cancer hospital for children and women would be developed as part of the project.

Maharashtra government has already given five acres of land on the Haffkine Institute premises, close to the TMC hospital in Parel in south-central Mumbai, for the new centre.

Apart from the Hadron Therapy Centre, a cancer hospital for children and women would be developed as part of the project.

"Although the money has also been allocated for the hospital for women and children, 80 per cent of it would be spent on setting up the therapy centre," a DAE official said.

Radiotherapy (RT) is an integral component in the management of cancers. However, conventional RT practices are faced with several limitations, experts said.

"While there have been tremendous advancements in the RT planning and delivery technology over the last couple of decades, there are still several clinical situations with significant scope for improvement.

"Local control, survival and quality of life following even modern RT techniques in several sites, such as some head and neck and skull base cancers, several pelvic malignancies and some childhood cancers, still pose formidable challenges and do mandate a continued quest to find suitable solutions," said Dr Rakesh Jalali, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the TMC hospital in Mumbai.