Dr Bhagwan Mahadev Nene (27 September 1940–19 January 2020)

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is deeply saddened by the passing of Dr B. M. Nene, Director of the Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Hospital (NDMCH) in Barshi, India, who was a great colleague and a well-wisher of IARC. Dr Nene was a major collaborator and supporter of IARC in India, and he led, as the principal investigator, several long-standing large cervical cancer prevention and early detection projects sponsored by IARC in collaboration with NDMCH and the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) in Mumbai, India. He was a great friend and supporter of IARC.

Dr Nene was a very gentle, charming, generous, sincere, and hardworking person with a great social and humanitarian outlook, which endeared him to many. He was a great and compassionate physician who provided the healing touch for thousands of patients in a rural area of India. He was a great family man, not only to his beloved family but also to a large family of his admirers and co-workers.

Dr Nene brought high-quality preventive and therapeutic cancer care at affordable costs to thousands of families in Solapur and the surrounding districts of Maharashtra, by founding the NDMCH in 1981 in close technical cooperation with TMC, the leading cancer treatment centre in India. He worked closely with Dr P. B. Desai, Ms K. Jayant, Dr Rao, Dr K. Dinshaw, Dr Rajan Badwe, and many others to ensure that high-quality cancer treatment and care was offered to thousands of poor cancer patients. NDMCH is designated as the TMC Rural Cancer Extension Project and provides comprehensive quality-assured cancer care with cancer surgery, radiotherapy, medical oncology, preventive oncology, imaging, pathology, laboratory services, and cancer registration.

Dr Nene established India’s first rural cancer registry in collaboration with TMC. He ably led world-class cancer prevention and control research in Maharashtra, and NDMCH is now widely known throughout the world for its large high-quality pragmatic cancer research projects. Dr Nene’s work in the early detection and prevention of cervical cancer has no parallels anywhere in India. NDMCH is now lauded by the World Health Organization as a model for providing cancer care in low- and middle-income countries. The greatest tribute that can be paid to Dr Nene’s memory is to continue to support and enlarge his great work in cancer control and cancer care.

IARC expresses its deepest condolences to Mrs Nene and the rest of Dr Nene’s dear family, his co-workers at NDMCH, and the people of Barshi at this time of great sorrow.

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