Chennai set to get free cancer screening centre for women

Chennai: Thousand Lights will get a public women's cancer screening centre by Feb 2026. It will screen women free of cst for breast cancer using mammograms, cervical cancer through Pap smear tests, and conduct abdominal and pelvic ultrasounds to detect ovarian cancers.The three-storeyed facility built at a cost of 1.23 crore will be run by Greater Chennai Corporation's health department and will function from 8am to 5pm on all days except Sundays. It has a mammogram screening room, a consultant room, a lab to conduct Pap smear tests, and an ultrasound room. While most services are free in govt hospitals, scans usually come at a cost. "I wanted to establish a free cancer screening facility in the city, owing to Tamil Nadu's high cancer burden. We'll have a team to build a data registry of those who walk in and their results to promote research for prevention," said Dr Ezhilan Naganathan, MLA of Thousand Lights.Dr J Amalorpavanathan, state planning commission member, said the facility will be timely, as TN accounts for 6.4% of India's cancer cases, despite having only 5.6% of the country's population. He added that while cervical cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in rural TN, urban areas are seeing a rise in breast cancer owing to delayed marriage and, hence, delayed lactation.