The new centre, operating on a pilot basis, is housed within the Government General Hospital’s NATCO cancer complex in Guntur and will provide free genetic and biomarker testing for breast and lung‑cancer patients, a service that can cost up to ₹25,000 in private labs.
Minister Yadav said the facility will collect and analyse genetic data from cancer patients and, in the longer term, from families affected by rare hereditary conditions, enabling doctors to match treatments to the molecular profile of tumours and potentially flag inherited disease risks early.
The launch is part of a broader government push for early cancer detection. Free screening for oral, breast and cervical cancers has reached about 2.65 crore of the targeted 4.27 crore population, uncovering roughly 7,500 new cancer cases to date.
In the first phase of the state’s cancer‑care expansion, four comprehensive cancer centres were built in Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Kadapa at a cost of ₹311 crore, each equipped with linear accelerators, brachytherapy units and CT simulators.
Second‑phase projects are under way in Kakinada and Anantapur, and the government plans to convert an additional 11 teaching hospitals into full‑fledged cancer centres, while the proposed Quantum Valley hub in Amaravati will host a large‑scale genome analysis centre to support advanced medical research across the region.