BANGALORE, INDIA: Need of the hour is more affordable medicines to address the growing challenge of cancer, and that should be accomplished with the use of modern technology, says Dr. Shiladitya Sengupta, Assistant Professor, Harward Medical School.
 
When talking at a plenary session on new ways to treat some of the most prevalent diseases in India, at EmTech 2010 here today, Sengupta said the emerging concept is that cancer is more than just a dividing cell. The current molecular medicines for cancer treatments are very costly. Some of the most widely used drugs cost $4500 to $7,000.
 
Considering the scenario that cancer affects all classes of society, there is a huge need to come up with affordable medicines. This calls for a integration of medicines with nanotechnology.
 
Explaining how nanotechnology provides affordable medicine, Sengupta showed an example of the drug – Cisplatin. This drug, with a multi billion dollar market, is very effective. But this drug has been found out to be toxic to kidneys. Considering the fact that, Kidney can filter only up to 5 nm particles, scientists developed a new version of the drug with a bigger molecules (up t 100 nm) using nanotechnology. The clinical trial of this drug in mice has shown that it has cured ovarian cancer completely.
 
Gupta noted that nanotechnology is not anything new, which has been around since 1959. Even though it has huge potential, our knowledge about the technology is very little. There is a huge necessity to trigger innovation in this field.
 
Gupta further said cancer was still an uphill battle, but the motivation factor for researchers are the survivors who refused to give up.
 
To cater to these needs the govt of India in association with Harvard Medical School and MIT is coming up with a Translational Health Science and Technology institute I Faridabad. The institute will hire initially around 200 experts.