Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre, Varanasi
Tata Memorial Centre's two hospitals in Varanasi bring comprehensive cancer care to the Gangetic plain, one of the most under-served and highest-burden regions in India for oral, cervical and gallbladder cancer.
Overview
The Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital (Lahartara) and the Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre (Sundar Bagiya) are units of the Tata Memorial Centre under the Department of Atomic Energy, and part of a national expansion that also includes Tata Memorial units in Sangrur and Mullanpur (Punjab), Visakhapatnam, Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and the Dr B. Borooah Cancer Institute in Guwahati. Varanasi was chosen because eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have very high rates of tobacco-related oral cancer, cervical cancer and gallbladder cancer and had almost no tertiary cancer capacity.
The centres deliver surgical, medical, radiation and paediatric oncology on the Tata Memorial model of free or subsidised care for most patients, and have become research sites in their own right: the METRO PLUS randomised trial from Varanasi (JCO Global Oncology 2026, 238 patients) found that adding low-cost oral metronomic chemotherapy to paclitaxel-carboplatin in advanced head and neck cancer doubled median survival from 5 to 10 months, and the INSIGHT-HRR cohort mapped germline homologous recombination repair variants in a large north Indian cohort.
- Head and neck cancer
- Gallbladder and gastrointestinal cancers
- Cervical cancer
- Paediatric oncology
- Low-cost trials (METRO PLUS)
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- PersonC. S. Pramesh
Shares National Cancer Grid of India, Global oncology and access in low- and middle-income countries, Tata Memorial Centre, Oesophageal cancer.
- IdeaValidate low-cost metronomic oral regimens in phase 3 and carry them into guidelines
Shares Tata Memorial Centre, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Cytotoxic chemotherapy, Cervical cancer.
- Key paperA National Cancer Grid pooled procurement initiative, India
Shares National Cancer Grid of India, Global oncology and access in low- and middle-income countries, Tata Memorial Centre, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaA platform trial of very-low-cost metronomic chemotherapy in LMIC common cancers
Shares Tata Memorial Centre, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Cytotoxic chemotherapy, Cervical cancer.
- InstitutionNational Health Authority (Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY)
Shares National Cancer Grid of India, Global oncology and access in low- and middle-income countries, Tata Memorial Centre, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- InstitutionThe new AIIMS network (PMSSY)
Shares National Cancer Grid of India, Global oncology and access in low- and middle-income countries, Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- InstitutionKidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology
Shares National Cancer Grid of India, Global oncology and access in low- and middle-income countries, Cervical cancer, Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
- TrialOral metronomic chemotherapy vs intravenous cisplatin (Tata Memorial)
Shares METRO PLUS (Tata Memorial Centre, Varanasi), Tata Memorial Centre, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Cytotoxic chemotherapy.