The UAE will open this year the Arab region & the Middle East’s first hospital offering the less invasive cancer treatment utilizing proton technology.
Located in Abu Dhabi, the Proton Center for Cancer Treatment, scheduled to be opened in the last quarter of 2018, will give immense hope to cancer patients as proton technology has proven high success and recovery rate than older traditional methods of treating cancer.
The center costing about US$60 billion (AED220 million) is being built by the Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Humanitarian and Scientific Foundation in partnership with Al-Sayer Group in Kuwait and the Al Fardan Group of the UAE, reported WAM.
H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, Advisor to His Highness the President and Chief Patron of the Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Humanitarian and Scientific Foundation, laid the foundation stone for the center on the 46th National Day of the UAE, signaling the start of its construction phase.
Sheikh Sultan said the new center will give cancer patients some hope while enhancing the UAE’s status as a unique destination for medical tourism in the region, as it is designed to receive international patients as well.
Advance treatment services
Sheikh Sultan said the center is part of a huge health project that would be implemented in the Bahia area of Abu Dhabi to provide advanced treatment services for chronic and dangerous diseases as per latest technologies, including an integrated hospital and a centre for planting stem cells.
Dr. Mahmoud Taleb Al Ali, Executive Director of Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan Foundation, pointed out, “The Centre will provide therapeutic services to 1,300 patients annually in the country and abroad.”
Proton therapy is a type of radiation treatment using proton, a positively charged particle, to treat cancer.
According to various medical studies, at high energy, protons can destroy cancer cells. Doctocs can use proton therapy alone or combined with other treatments like radiation, surgery, chemotherapy, and/or immunotherapy.
Administered through the skin, a machine called a synchrotron or cyclotron speeds up the protons’ invasion to the cancerous cells without causing damage to the surrounding cells and tissues.
Noble mission
Al-Ali stressed that part of the center’s mission is to set aside part of its earnings to spend on the UAE’s humanitarian relief efforts & for further development of research on cancer and tumors in the UAE and the Arab region.
Dr. Mahdy Fardan Ali Al-Fardan, Chairman of the board for the Centre in Abu Dhabi, proton technology can be used in treating all types of cancer, especially tumors in children, and prostate cancer.
He explained that the use of the proton technology in the treatment of cancer patients was a significant breakthrough in the treatment methods within the country, and the UAE was at the forefront of countries that used the best innovative methods for cancer treatments globally.
The Centre will also provide chemotherapy, radiotherapy and comprehensive care programs that will include the patient’s mental and physical care, making it a unique medical facility in the Middle East.
Burgeoning industry
Medical tourism is a burgeoning industry in the UAE as words spread about the country’s good medical facilities and well trained doctors and specialized.
The Dubai Health Authority said the emirate generated more than Dh1.4 billion in 2016 from the growing medical tourism sector.
About 326,649 tourists visited Dubai in 2016 for medical reasons up by 9.5 per cent with orthopedics, dermatology and ophthalmology topping up the list of availed treatments.
Dr. Laila Al Marzouqi, director of Dubai Medical Tourism Project, said Asians account for the lion share of Dubai’s medical tourism at 37 per cent market followed by the Arab and GCC countries at 31 per cent. Europeans account for 15 per cent.