Goa, Aug. 27 -- SHASHWAT GUPTA RAY

Goa's cancer burden is rising, but its public health care system is still relying on radiation technology that be longs to another era. With nearly 1,700 new cancer cases being record ed in the State every year, Goa Medical College (GMC) continues to depend on a Cobalt-60 therapy machine introduced nearly three dec ades ago. While the machine remains capable of treating cancer, experts say it lacks the precision of modern ra diation systems and can ex pose surrounding healthy tissue to unnecessary radi ation, increasing the risk of side effects. The gap is acute at a time when radiation oncology has advanced dramatically, with Linear Accelerators (LINAC), image-guided radiation ther apy, stereotactic te...