How Research in Cancer Biology can Benefit Through Student Participation?

 

To solve cancer-related problems in India, universities and institutes should start research-based specialised courses in cancer biology that would be able to train students in developing early cancer detection tools and therapeutic approaches for the disease. 

Cancer is one of the most common diseases globally. As reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for almost 10 million deaths in 2020, i.e. one in six deaths was due to cancer. Breast, lung, colon, and prostate cancers are reported to be the most common cancers globally.

Based on the National Cancer Registry Programme of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Government of India, the estimated incidence of cancer cases in India was 13.9 lakh in 2020, increasing to 14.2 lakh in 2021 and 14.6 lakh in 2022. The estimated mortality due to cancer was 7.7 lakh in 2020, increasing to 7.8 lakh in 2021 and 8.0 lakh in 2022. The number of cases is expected to rise to 29.8 million in India by 2025.

In the last few decades in India, because of a change in lifestyle, an increase in life expectancy and easy access to diagnostic facilities, the number of cancer patients has grown considerably. India is one of the fastest-growing countries in the world, not only in terms of infrastructure, economy, IT, manpower and entrepreneurship but also population and number of cancer patients.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and WHO, India's cancer burden will almost double in the next 20 years – from 1.3 million in 2020 to 2.2 million in 2040 - and mortality rate from 0.8 million in 2020 to 1.4 million in 2040. This will make the disease epidemic in nature and India might be known as the cancer capital of the world.

This is bound to happen because of contaminated food and water, and presence of harmful chemicals, pesticides, antibiotics and pathogenic bacteria and viruses in everyday items.

The continuous exposure of such carcinogenic/pathogenic or genotoxic agents causes genetic mutations which accumulates as the age advances and leads to a higher incidence of cancers in the population. Cancer is a preventable disease and can be treated if detected early. In most of the cases, cancer patients come to the clinicians when the disease has reached an advanced stage and become aggressive. Early detection of the disease is very crucial for better treatment. Therefore, it is important to have a good number of trained manpower, including clinicians, researchers/scientists and support staff to deal with the huge burden of cancer patients for their better treatment and management.

Also, well-trained manpower is needed to educate, counsel, and bring awareness to the public about cancer, its potential risk factors, the associated facts/myths and psychological and societal implications of the disease.

There are several institutions around the globe such as National Cancer Institute (NCI), Stanford University, University of Chicago and University of Kansas Medical Centre, US; The Institute of Cancer Research and University of Cambridge, UK; University of Zurich, Switzerland; and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Germany,  apart from many others which offer research-based courses in Cancer Biology to train the future workforce  that can contribute effectively in cancer management.

However, such dedicated training institutions/research centres are sparse in India at present when compared to the cancer caseload of the country. In India, the first National Cancer Institute (NCI) was established in 2015 in Jhajjar, Haryana, under the umbrella of AIIMS New Delhi. It started functioning in 2018. This institute is projected to bridge the gap in cancer healthcare, providing state-of-the-art facilities to patients and play a revolutionary role in the field of translational cancer research.

Several other public and private institutions including selected labs and centres of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Science & Technology (DST), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and selected private universities including Manipal University, Shoolini University, Amity University and many more have started offering Ph.D. in Cancer Biology and other related areas.

Prof. Dhruv Kumar, Cluster Head of Allied Health Sciences at the School of Health Sciences and Technology, UPES Dehradun has recently established Translational Cancer Research Centre and his team is working on early cancer detection, cancer prevention and therapeutics projects funded by national and international funding agencies including ICMR, SERB, DST-BRICS, Indo-Japan in collaboration with University of Tokyo, Japan, University of Bologna, Italy, AIIMS New Delhi, AIIMS Bhopal, AIIMS Rishikesh, BARC Mumbai, THSTI Faridabad, Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, Hansraj College, University of Delhi and Mahavir Cancer Sansthan & Research Centre (MCSRC), Patna.

Faculty and scientists at UPES are working in various applied areas of interdisciplinary research in cancer to develop affordable diagnosis and drugs for effective treatment of major cancers prevalent in India - oral, lung, breast, cervical, brain, gall bladder, ovarian, blood, liver, prostate, skin, and pancreatic cancer. Cancer incidence is continuing to increase in India. Every year thousands of crores of rupees are spent on cancer treatment and management which leads to a huge financial burden.

The early detection strategies and cancer awareness programs will help in planning cancer prevention, control activities and proper disease management which will eventually reduce the financial burden associated with cancer. It is anticipated, in coming years, both government and private institutions in India will realise the significance of cancer research and will come forward to introduce research-based cancer biology courses and training in cancer-related areas to train specialised manpower including clinicians, researchers, scientists, supporting staff to develop early cancer detection tools, low-cost affordable therapeutic strategies and manage a huge load of cancer patients.

 

By Dr Dhruv Kumar, Senior Associate Professor at UPES School of Health Sciences and Technology

 

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha