TAGUM CITY, Philippines – Mindanao’s first state-owned P134-million linear accelerator therapy will cater to at least 40 patients per day, with their treatment bills subsidized from their Philhealth premium, a development for cancer patients who cannot afford such “expensive” treatment.

The linear accelerator equipment is one of the facilities inside the Davao Regional Hospital’s (DRH) Nuclear and Radiotherapy Center, which was formally opened Sunday by Health Minister Enrique T. Ona, a welcome development for indigent patients living with cancer.

“The opening (of the nuclear and radiotherapy center) is a bright hope for our countrymen with cancer,” said Ona.

The said radiation therapy equipment sits as the spotlight of the cancer center since, unlike chemotherapy, linear accelerator therapy (LINAC) spares normal tissues and only targets cancer cells in a specific area in the patient’s body, said Carlito U. Pillerin, DRH administrator.

“And it’s the first in Mindanao to be owned by the government,” Pillerin added.

A cancer patient who receives LINAC treatment is charged Php 50,000 per session. But as Pillerin said in an interview with reporters yesterday, indigent patients who are members of Philhealth will be able to get the treatment “for free.”

With new treatment facilities, he said, cancer patients are in a higher chance of surviving from the dreaded disease caused by a rapid division of abnormal cells in the human body.

Cancer is one of the major causes of death of many Filipinos, according to the Department of Health, where some 200,000 are diagnosed with cancer every single year.

Davao Regional Hospital, one of the few government institutions in the country recognized for being run efficiently, was able to obtain a P200 million ($4.61 million @ $1=P43.33) budget from the national government to start the operations of the center, Pillerin said.

The center has a funding requirement of about P600 million when it was initially approved in 2006. But it was only in 2009 when the P200 million fund was made available.

The cancer center sits on a two-hectare lot which was donated to the hospital by the University of Southeastern Philippines through the intercession of Tagum City Mayor Rey T. Uy.

With the remaining amount, the hospital was able to buy the P134 million linear particle accelerator.