TIRUNELVELI: The lack of advanced treatment facility for cancer, like bone marrow transplant (BMT) unit, in the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH), forces patients from the southern districts to visit the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala or travel to far-off Chennai for treatment.

At least 20 blood cancer patients and their caretakers whom TNIE interacted in the RCC are from Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Thoothukudi districts. They said they were referred to RCC by medical college hospitals in their respective districts due to absence of BMT unit.

“We were advised by a government oncologist to visit private institutions in Vellore or Chennai (Adyar) if we are unwilling to go to RCC, which is run by the Kerala government. Unable to travel nearly 700 km to Chennai with my ailing 23-year-old brother, I admitted him to RCC. However, as we do not have PM-JAY insurance cashless cover, I had to spend several lakhs of rupees for his chemotherapy. For the bone marrow transplant, I have been told to arrange Rs 12 lakh to Rs 16 lakh,” said a 27-year-old crane operator.

When contacted by TNIE in April, RCC director Dr Rekha A Nair said the institution had registered 1,521 new patients from TN in 2024-25. According to the data she shared, the most number of patients was from Kanniyakumari (40.63%), Tirunelveli (11.9%), Tenkasi (10.65%) and Thoothukudi (7.36%) districts.

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