Preventive Oncology

RNMCRC is the field extension center of CNCI situated jn rural surrounding approximately 50 Km away from the city of Kolkata. Community based cancer awareness, cancer screening and early detection and home based palliative care services were conducted from the center for the population of the district of Hooghly and surrounding districts. The center can be developed as the nodal center for cancer control activities including palliative care as per the District Cancer Control Program guidelines under the National Cancer Control Program (NCCP). RNMCRC can serve as a much needed link between the referral center (CNCI) and the community.

The Ruplal Nandy Memorial Cancer Centre at Chandernagore was opened by the Union Health Minister Dr. Sushila Nayar in February 1, 1965 in a building donated by Shri Shib Sankar Nandy son of Ruplal Nandy, the rich Zaminder of that area. The building, previously known as Gala-Kuthi’ bears a great heritage with a history of connection with dignitaries of the past like Maharaja Krishnachandra, poet Bharat Chandra Roy, great freedom fighter Malital Roy and many others. The purpose of the centre is to serve as a subsidiary and supplementary centre for cancer investigative work in the semi-urban area at Chandernagore. On 1st February, 1966, Cancer Chemotherapy Clinical Research wing was opened in the main building and subsequently on 21st November, 1966, the out patients department and cancer detection service were opened in a newly built two story annexe building. Since then this field unit of Chandernagore has been reorganized and developed to conduct regular Cancer Detection Clinics, training workshops for health workers involved in cancer detection at District Hospitals and Primary Health Centers and to establish pain relief and palliative clinics for patients receiving treatment at CNCI, Kolkata. This peripheral center of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute has been geared up to run regular specialist clinics and to do different diagnostic tests including biopsy so that the patients referred from the villages do not have to travel a long distance to get their diagnosis established. Cancer specialists from different Departments of CNCI now regularly hold clinics at the Center and to develop a Rural Cancer Registry and Epidemiological Survey field station. RNMCRC has been included in the CEDS project of CNCI Preventive Oncology and also in the Modified District Cancer Control Programme (MDCCP), a pilot project of the NCCP.