Section 57A. The department, with or without the cooperation of local boards of health, hospitals, dispensaries or other agencies, shall establish and maintain cancer clinics in such parts of the commonwealth as it may deem most advantageous to the public health, and may otherwise provide services and treatment for cancer, subject to such rules and regulations as the department may from time to time establish. For the purposes of this section, ”providing treatment” shall include providing transportation, or the reasonable cost of such transportation, to and from the place where treatment is given whenever the patient is not able to pay for such transportation.