15 Nov 2013|Noida | Amity University Campus, Sector-125
International Symposium on “Frontiers in Cancer Research: Prevention to Therapeutics” begins at Amity University
Amity Center for Cancer Epidemiology & Cancer Research, Amity University started two day International Symposium on “Frontiers in Cancer Research: Prevention to Therapeutics” at Amity Campus, Sector- 125, Noida.
Dr. V.M. Katoch, Secretary - Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Director General - Indian Council of Medical Research, Dr. Ashok K Chauhan, Founder President – Amity Group, Prof. Rajesh Aggarwal, Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences – University of Colorado Denver USA, Dr. W Selvamurthy, President – Amity Science Technology & Innovation Foundation, Dr. Ajit Nagpal, Chairman – Amity Pacific Forum inaugurated the Symposium.
Over 150 delegates from India and abroad are participating in the Symposium, deliberating upon the recent advancements in Cancer Research, including the measures for prevention, early diagnosis, assessing susceptibility as well as new Therapeutic modalities.
In addition to the Indian delegates, experts from University of Colorado School of Pharmacy, Denver, USA, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, USA, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, USA, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, USA & University of California, Irvine, USA are also participating in the Symposium.
While presenting the inaugural address, Dr. V.M. Katoch - Secretary - Department of Health Research and Director General - Indian Council of Medical Research said that for a country like India, every problem is big a problem and if it is of cancer treatment than many issue rises since its management is very expensive. There are many types of cancer and for most of the malignancies, surgery is not an answer. Patient undergoes chemotherapy and radiotherapy which creates more modalities. Treatment is also expensive. Dr. Katoch said that in year 2002 he had created a DNA Chip which can make the treatment easier. Dr Katoch added that it is important to give specific treatment to particular cancer patient. He said that in India the industry is more looking towards business generation and not coming forward for research and innovation. Here there is a gap between industry, society and the sufferer. Addressing the budding scientists, Dr. Katoch said that cancer is a great suffering and one has to choose a particular target of cancer and do research on it. Dr. Katoch said that dreams can turn to reality if it is planned well and we are dreaming for cancer free society.
Dr. Ashok K Chauhan, Founder President – Amity Group said that cancer is a non-communicable disease which has emerged as one of the major health hazard in the present era. The mortality and morbidity due to cancer has shown an exponential rise due to multiple factors including lifestyle, environmental factors and genetic factors. Dr. Chauhan added that recent advancements have paved ways for early diagnosis and treatment to increase the health span of cancer survivors. Dr. Chauhan said that there is need to do more research on cancer since more and more people are suffering.
Dr. W Selvamurthy, President – Amity Science Technology & Innovation Foundation said that cancer is the leading cause of death in the developed countries and second leading cause of death in developing countries. Its occurrence is not confined to age, sex or geographical region therefore intensive research in the area related to diagnostics, prevention and therapeutics is need of the hour. Talking about the Symposium, Dr. Selvamurthy said that goal of this symposium is to familiarize the audience with various cancers, their causes and available treatments. In this symposium 21 invited lectures and more than 100 poster presentations will be presented by experts and scientists from all over the world.
The inauguration was followed by lecture series on topics such as “Role of Dietary and Natural/Synthetic Agents in Cancer Control”, “Biomarkers and Early Detection of Cancer” by eminent scientists , researchers and doctors including Prof. Rajesh Agarwal, Univ. of Colorado School of Pharmacy, Denver, USA, Prof. C.V. Rao, Univrsity. of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, USA; Dr. Ashok K. Vaid, Medanta Cancer Institute, Gurgaon India; Prof. Chitra Mandal, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata and Prof. Shivendra Singh, Univ. of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, USA.
Prof. C.V. Rao, University. of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, USA in his lecture on pancreatic cancer prevention, said that despite several advances in the surgical, radiological and chemotherapeutics to manage pancreatic cancer for number of decades, the overall five year survival for patients is still remain around 3%. The lack of progress against this malignancy is due to no early diagnosis and striking therapeutic resistance.
Dr. Ashok K. Vaid, Chairman, Medical Oncology and Hematology - Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon India in his lecture on Cancer in India – Burden and prevention said that with the improvement in health care system in India, non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and road accidents have become the major cause of deaths today. With increasing life expectancy, the incidence and prevalence of cancer has also increased. About 11 lakh new cancer cases are detected in India every year and there is an estimate of about 5 lakh deaths every year due to cancer. Due to lack of awareness and other factors, around 70% of patients are in advanced stage of cancer.
Second day will witness deliberations on the topic like “Emerging Trends in Multimodality Cancer Therapeutics” and Recent Advances in Translational Cancer Research” by eminent experts like Dr. BS Dwarkanath – Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences, Delhi, Prof. Yogeshwar Shukla, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, Dr. Xiolin Zi from University of California, Dr. Amit Dutt from Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.
Hundreds of Students, Scientists Researchers and Academicians from India and abroad are participating in this International Symposium.