The Foundation was set up in December 1988. The event culminating in the formation of the Indore Cancer Foundation (ICF) dates back to 1987, when Dr. Digpal Dharkar was a young cancer surgeon on fellowships in head and neck surgical oncology in France, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and in the US under the world-renowned Dr. Jatin P. Shah of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA. Dr. Dharkar's decision to train under the best in the world and then come back to India to do something, received direction when Dr. Shah said, “Identify the needs of your region, plan for the future and exploit the tremendous potential for research in India's most common cancers, the head and neck cancers”
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Dr. Digpal Dharkar, M.S.
(Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai)
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On his return, Dr. Dharkar floated the idea of the project, of working in the field of cancer, reaching out to people in the remote, rural areas of the region and offering them state-of-the-art treatment, creating an awareness on the importance of early detection and the need to get the right treatment; and in all this maintain a special focus on oral cancer.
Oral cancer is the 6th most common cancer worldwide. Unfortunately, it ranks as the most frequently observed cancer amongst men in India (33% of all the cancers). This is largely due to the habit of smoking, chewing tobacco & pan and similar products. This causes in India, the highest incidence of mouth cancer anywhere in the world. Thus, there are around 200 000 new head and neck cancer patients every year.
Mr. Satyanarain Khandelwal was associated with the project from day one. The first meeting took place at Mr. Ashok Chitale's residence. Others of public eminence like, Mr. Sharad Sanghi of Sanghi Brothers, Mr. N. N. Jain of Prestige Food, late Mr. Govindram Pandit of the Marwal group joined hands in this noble cause and the ICF family has continued to grow!
Today, people staying all over the world support the Foundation by providing financial and/or technical assistance. Our personnel have been trained at some of the best institutions in the world and we have conducted various internationally supported scientific projects covering various aspects of Oncology.
Through this web site, we would like to share with you the work that has been done in the last 20 years, where we stand today and our future plans. We sincerely believe in the intrinsic worth of this project. We also believe that it is the synergy created by the tireless efforts and the collective wisdom of everyone involved, which ensures the success of a project such as this. We, therefore, invite you to join hands with us. Assistance, both technical and financial, will be welcome.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Dr. Digpal Dharkar
Honorary Secretary,
Indore Cancer Foundation
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