{"entity":{"id":"homi-bhabha-cancer-hospital-varanasi","kind":"institution","name":"Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre, Varanasi","aka":["HBCH Varanasi","MPMMCC","Tata Memorial Centre Varanasi"],"tldr":"Tata Memorial Centre's two hospitals in Varanasi bring comprehensive cancer care to the Gangetic plain, one of the most under-served and highest-burden regions in India for oral, cervical and gallbladder cancer.","summary":"The Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital (Lahartara) and the Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre (Sundar Bagiya) are units of the Tata Memorial Centre under the Department of Atomic Energy, and part of a national expansion that also includes Tata Memorial units in Sangrur and Mullanpur (Punjab), Visakhapatnam, Muzaffarpur (Bihar) and the Dr B. Borooah Cancer Institute in Guwahati. Varanasi was chosen because eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have very high rates of tobacco-related oral cancer, cervical cancer and gallbladder cancer and had almost no tertiary cancer capacity.\n\nThe centres deliver surgical, medical, radiation and paediatric oncology on the Tata Memorial model of free or subsidised care for most patients, and have become research sites in their own right: the METRO PLUS randomised trial from Varanasi (JCO Global Oncology 2026, 238 patients) found that adding low-cost oral metronomic chemotherapy to paclitaxel-carboplatin in advanced head and neck cancer doubled median survival from 5 to 10 months, and the INSIGHT-HRR cohort mapped germline homologous recombination repair variants in a large north Indian cohort.","asOf":"2026-09-10","links":[{"label":"Tata Memorial Centre (units)","url":"https://tmc.gov.in"},{"label":"METRO PLUS trial (JCO Glob Oncol 2026)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1200/GO-25-00721"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["head-and-neck","cervical","cholangiocarcinoma","esophageal"],"sections":["chemotherapy","surgery","radiation"],"technologies":["cytotoxic-chemotherapy","global-oncology-access"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["tata-memorial","national-cancer-grid"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["metro-plus-varanasi"],"people":["kapoor-akhil"],"bottlenecks":["b-global-access","b-care-fragmentation"],"keyPapers":["paper-kapoor-jco-glob-oncol"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"city":"Varanasi","country":"IN","lat":25.318,"lng":82.973,"institutionType":"cancer-center","website":"https://tmc.gov.in","university":"Homi Bhabha National Institute","programs":["Head and neck cancer","Gallbladder and gastrointestinal cancers","Cervical cancer","Paediatric oncology","Low-cost trials (METRO PLUS)"]},"route":"/institutions/homi-bhabha-cancer-hospital-varanasi/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"cholangiocarcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma)","route":"/cancers/cholangiocarcinoma/"},{"id":"buccal-mucosa-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Buccal mucosa and gingivobuccal cancer (oral cancer in India)","route":"/cancers/buccal-mucosa-cancer/"},{"id":"cervical","kind":"cancer","name":"Cervical cancer","route":"/cancers/cervical/"},{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"},{"id":"esophageal","kind":"cancer","name":"Oesophageal cancer","route":"/cancers/esophageal/"}],"section":[{"id":"chemotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Chemotherapy","route":"/fronts/chemotherapy/"},{"id":"radiation","kind":"section","name":"Radiation Therapy","route":"/fronts/radiation/"},{"id":"surgery","kind":"section","name":"Surgery & Interventional","route":"/fronts/surgery/"}],"technology":[{"id":"cytotoxic-chemotherapy","kind":"technology","name":"Cytotoxic chemotherapy","route":"/technologies/cytotoxic-chemotherapy/"},{"id":"global-oncology-access","kind":"technology","name":"Global oncology and access in low- and middle-income countries","route":"/technologies/global-oncology-access/"}],"institution":[{"id":"national-cancer-grid","kind":"institution","name":"National Cancer Grid of India","route":"/institutions/national-cancer-grid/"},{"id":"tata-memorial","kind":"institution","name":"Tata Memorial Centre","route":"/institutions/tata-memorial/"}],"trial":[{"id":"metro-plus-varanasi","kind":"trial","name":"METRO PLUS (Tata Memorial Centre, Varanasi)","route":"/trials/metro-plus-varanasi/"}],"person":[{"id":"kapoor-akhil","kind":"person","name":"Akhil Kapoor","route":"/people/kapoor-akhil/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-care-fragmentation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Fragmented care and guideline gaps","route":"/bottlenecks/b-care-fragmentation/"},{"id":"b-global-access","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Most of the world has almost no cancer care","route":"/bottlenecks/b-global-access/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-kapoor-jco-glob-oncol","kind":"paper","name":"Integrating Metronomic Therapy With Standard Chemotherapy in Advanced Unresectable Head and Neck Cancer: A Randomized Trial Addressing Global Cancer Care Equity (METRO PLUS)","route":"/key-papers/paper-kapoor-jco-glob-oncol/"}]}}