The BTF President Dr. Binay Shah recently visited the Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center (BTFCC) in Janakpur, Nepal. In addition to seeing patients at the Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center during his 3-week long trip to Nepal, Dr. Shah met with local leaders, partners, and other oncology professionals in Nepal to collaborate on the BTFCC's projects and to discuss the current plans for the BTFCC.
The Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center was established in December 2018 in Janakpur, Nepal to provide cancer prevention, treatment, and palliative care services to the region's more than 6 million residents. BTFCC is located in Nepal's province 2. It is the only cancer hospital east of Kathmandu valley and west of Jhapa district - a densely populated geographic area which is home to nearly 20 million Nepalese.
The current hospital at the Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center is a 25-bed hospital operated out of a rented building. Plans are underway to expand this hospital to a 200-bed state-of-the-art center for excellence in cancer treatment, research and education. The Binaytara Cancer Trust, the sister non-profit of the Binaytara Foundation, which owns and operates the Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center in Janakpur, has purchased land to build the new cancer hospital. Ground-breaking of the new hospital is planned for April 15th, 2022.
Once the construction of the 200-bed hospital is completed and the hospital is fully operational, the BTFCC is expected to provide cancer care to nearly 20,000 new cancer patients annually. These patients will come from several districts in Nepal as well as the neighboring Indian state of Bihar which is about 14 miles from where the Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center is located. Like in Nepal, the state of cancer care in Bihar is also very poor. This hospital will serve these patients who have suffered due to lack of availability of cancer care and poor health awareness in general.