Mumbai, Oct. 1 -- The state cabinet on Tuesday approved a comprehensive policy for cancer treatment in Maharashtra, which is expected to significantly increase the number of day-care centers for cancer treatment. A foundation with a corpus of Rs.100 crore will be established soon to implement the policy and 18 cancer care hospitals across the state will be placed in three tiers, with the Parel-based Tata Memorial Hospital designated as the apex "L1" institute, and 17 other hospitals placed in the L2 and L3 categories, officials aware of the matter told Hindustan Times. The second tier of hospitals, L2, will comprise eight hospitals, including government-run medical college and hospitals at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Chandrapur, Nagpur, Mumbai (JJ Hospital), Kolhapur, and Pune, and public health department referral hospitals at Nashik and Amravati. The third tier, L3, will comprise nine hospitals, including government medical college and hospitals in Ambajogai (Beed), Nanded, Yavatmal, Mumbai (Cama and Albless Hospital), Satara, Baramati, Jalgaon, Ratnagiri and the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust Hospital in Shirdi. The medical education department will set up a central command-and-control centre for coordination among these hospitals, said officials. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), the number of cancer patients in Maharashtra in 2025 is projected to increase by 11% compared to 2020. "Allocations worth Rs.1,529.38 crore and Rs.147.70 crore will be made in the budget for L2 and L3 centers," an official said. The medical education and public health departments will handle recruitments for L2 hospitals and higher-level committee approval requirements will be relaxed, officials said. These hospitals will provide post-graduate super-specialty courses, they added. For L3 hospitals, procurement of equipment, manpower, and management will be made via the public-private partnership (PPP) route, except for the Shirdi Sansthan Hospital. The state government will soon establish the Maharashtra Cancer Care, Research and Education Foundation (Mahacare) to provide manpower, funding, and guidance to cancer hospitals across the state, said officials. "The foundation will design locally relevant and cost-effective healthcare programmes, promote research, and run campaigns for cancer prevention. It will also facilitate exchange of information," the official told HT. The foundation will have 18 members including chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who will be the chairperson. A specialised executive board will take care of daily operations of the foundation and NGOs will be involved in palliative care programmes in cases where no treatment works, officials said. "The Foundation will be provided with Rs.100 crore as share capital. Additionally, 20% of the fees received by cancer hospitals under the Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya Yojana will be allocated to the foundation," said an official....