The National Service Scheme – NSS unit of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) organized a half a day scientific symposium on the occasion of World Cancer Day on 4th February 2022, on the lines of this year’s World Cancer day theme “Close the care Gap” proposed by the Union for International Cancer Control to support the goals of the world cancer declaration written in 2008. As a part of this awareness program, Prof. B J Rao, Vice-Chancellor, UoH emphasized the heterogeneity of cancer cells, how the cancer cells follow ‘Darwinian evolution’ model and evolution of drug resistance and relapse over the time.
Dr Raghunadha Rao, Chief Medical Oncologist at KIMS ICON, Visakhapatnam established by Tata Memorial hospital, enlightened the audience with the evolution of therapy way from the use of Arsenicals in early 1900’s till today’s concept of personalized immune cells (CAR T-Cells) in various types of cancers. He also emphasized on studies conducted in migratory population, where changing dietary habits like vegetarian to non-vegetarian correlates with higher risk of cancer.
Dr. Kumar Somasundaram, Indian Institute of Sciences-Bangalore, well know experimental cancer biologist, who shared some of his recent experimental findings in the formation of new blood vessels in glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor, which is helping in the growth of the tumor. He also described on how one can use such research findings in the development of new drugs and treatment strategies
Dr. A. Bindu Madhava Reddy, NSS coordinator and Prof. Bramhanandam Manavathi, a Cancer biologist from the University of Hyderabad highlighted the importance of awareness of cancer in the community so as to bridge the gap in knowledge and advancements in therapeutic options to become cancer survivor and be part of a cancer-free world.
Full video link of the symposium: