Research Overview

The problem of cancer is universal in nature. Cancer in all forms causes 12 percent of deaths throughout the world that includes the developed and developing countries. In developed countries, cancer is ranked as the second commonest cause of death (205 million), while in developing countries it is ranked third (3.8 million), next to infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases. In India nearly 3 million persons are suffering from cancer at any given time and around 100000 new cases are added each year. In case of women, the occurrence of cancer in the descending order is of the cervix, breasts, oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus. Among Indian women the cancer of the breast and cervix form a large group of 60 percent of all cases. Breast cancer in women is alarmingly high in urban populations. In India the majority of breast cancer is diagnosed in the advanced stage and hence morbidity remains high. So our challenge is to implement an effective screening programme using genomic and proteomic imputes and identifying new cancer markers and their regulation by modern cell biology techniques.

Studies on the blood groups in relation to different types of Cancer are being carried out in this Centre in order to find out the correlation of malignances with blood groups. Some observations have already come in literature. This study can serve the purpose of prevention of Cancer initially by correlating the types of Cancer with the particular specific blood group of that case. Application of the Stem Cell preferably from the peripheral blood for the treatment of Cancer cases specially Leukemia cases is very modern appraoch. The Centre also has the intention to do indepth research on the said topic.

Alfa-GST and Cytochrome P450 play the vital role in the detoxification system of the toxic pollutants, thus serving as a defense system by protecting the DNA damage by the toxic pollutants. Environmental pollution is now a global problem and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, benzene, etc. are the major pollutants which can lead to DNA damage which is the fore-runner of cancer of different types involving different organs. Thus study on the interaction of these two genes vis-à-vis their gene product with respect to environmental pollution is important as it finally causes mutation and changes to gene level as well as development of lethal medical disorders like cancer. Carcinoma Cervix is a commonly known cancer for female where Human Papilloma Virus type 16 and 18 has a very important role. In this case prognosis is worst. Apart from type 16 and 18, whether any other subtype of HPV is responsible for cancer Cervix is also not clear. Thus study of the gene-environment interaction in relation to cancer with special reference to Alfa-GST and Cytochrome P450 and studies on the role of HPV infection in the development of carcinoma cervix need in-depth investigation, which are our future research objectives.