2023 Impact Preview

Thank you. 2024 marks 29 years of Free cancer Care in Pakistan. As we Begin a New Year of Hope for Cancer Patients in need, we look back on what we achieved together in 2023.

With our annual audit underway, the numbers are rolling in. Here’s a preview of what we’re seeing in the run-up to the release of our Annual Review.

New Patients Supported

Last year, we had over 15,000 Hospital Admissions across our Lahore and Peshawar Hospitals and over 13,000 New Registrations. These numbers don’t account for the many returning patients or those receiving ongoing treatment throughout the year.

Treatment Provided

The treatment we provide at Shaukat Khanum Hospitals is wide-ranging, depending on the needs of each patient. In 2023, we carried out over 79,000 Chemotherapy sessions, over 80,000 Radiation Therapy sessions and just under 18,000 surgical procedures.

Medical Articles Published

We are proud to be one of the largest contributors to medical literature on cancer, from Pakistan. In 2023 alone, we published 140 research articles in Peer Reviewed Journals. These were wide-ranging, focusing on the genetic factors involved in the cause of some cancers. You can read more about our 2023 research here.

New Therapies Launched

As a comprehensive cancer centre, it is part of our mission to provide the best possible treatment to all cancer patients regardless of their financial capabilities. This includes patients suffering from less common, advanced-stage cancers. In 2023, our Lahore hospital expanded its nuclear medicine services by launching two new treatment methods:

• Lu-177 DOTATATE treatment for neuroendocrine cancers.
• Lu-177 PSMA treatment for metastatic prostate cancers (with Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen).

These novel therapies involve the injection of a radio-labelled isotope into the bloodstream of affected patients which delivers radiation therapy directly to the cancer cells. You can find out more about Lu-177 PSMA treatment and our first patient to receive it last year, here.

Lahore Hospital Updates

As the current infrastructure of our Lahore Hospital is already running at full capacity, we continue to invest in expansion and advanced technology in order to be able to accept larger numbers of patients. To expand our capacity at the hospital and improve patient flow, we opened a new 12-bed admission holding bay.

In August 2023, we replaced one of our old radiation therapy machines with a top-of-the-line Halcyon linear accelerator with advanced radiotherapy capability. You can read more about how machines like this give patients a better chance at recovery from cancer here.

And in September 2023, the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) recognised our ongoing commitment to quality treatment for patients. The QOPI is associated with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and you can find out more about the initiative here.

Karachi Hospital Progress

We’ve invested £30 million to date in the Karachi Hospital construction, with finishing works ongoing. To meet the inauguration deadline, we’ve overcome all the challenges that set us back in 2023. Despite them, our Karachi Hospital walk-in clinic for cancer screening and triaging came into operation last year, with many more major construction works completed. You can read about them in our 2023 Karachi Hospital Progress update here.

Thank you for 29 years of ongoing trust, which has enabled us to provide free cancer care to Pakistan’s poorest. Find out how you can continue to support us through regular donations, no matter how small, by clicking below.