KARACHI: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan has said that timely diagnosis of cancer is of utmost importance for early cure. He said this while talking to Rick Rippen, the representative of company providing and installing a cyclotron unit at Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) at Governor House. The Advisor to Sindh Governor, Prof Naushad Ahmed Shaikh and Aijaz Mirza were also present onthe occasion. The governor said that the most advanced cyclotron unit would help in identifying precise part of the body having cancer affected cells. An amount of Rs 200 million has been earmarked for the procurement and installation of this unit at JPMC, he added. Dr Ebad said that due to non-availability of cyclotron at any public sector hospital, cancer patients are suffering badly. The ratio of deaths in cancer patients is alarmingly high as chemotherapy and radiation treatment also affects healthy parts of the body alongside cancer-hit portions, he added. He said that due to chemotherapy and radiation, many complexities are also witnessed in patients adding that it is also very unfortunate that in majority of cancer patients the disease is discovered at last stage when it becomes almost incurable. The Sindh governor further said that according to a research, every fifth person of our population is at risk of having some kind of cancer. He said the main reason of rapid spread of different types of cancer, especially in women and children is unawareness about the disease and precautionary measures about the same. He said that the Health Department should focus on this and the media should be involved in short public service awareness messages about the disease as it could influence and motivate masses more effectively. While informing the Sindh governor about the Cyclotron, Tick Rippen said that it is a state-of-the-art unit, which occupy very less space and relatively easy to handle and operate as compared with conventional cyclotrons. The main feature of this machine is that it works on the principle of dose on demand and hence its wastage ratio is near to zero, he added. Rippen further informed that presently this facility is available only in two hospitals of private sector but none of the public sector hospital has this unit and by July this year, the JPMC would be the first public sector health facility to be in possession of this machine.