B.S. Abdur Rahman University in association with Purdue University (one of top 10 US Universities), USA and Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai are jointly organising an International Workshop on “Electro-Chemo-Therapy for Effective Cancer Treatment” during July 27-28, 2011. It is the first of its kind Workshop highlighting an alternative therapy for Cancer Treatment.
Six eminent researchers and medical practitioners have agreed to be resource persons for the Workshop. The speakers are Dr. Gerald O. Sullivan, Ireland, Dr. Steve Haltiwanger, USA, Dr. Luca Campana, Italy, Dr. Declan Soden, UK, Dr. Raji Sundararajan, USA and Dr. Meera Sadadcharan, Ireland.
There has been a good response for the Workshop. The First Day of the Workshop will be conducted at Convention Centre, B.S. Abdur Rahman University and the Second Day at Harvard Auditorium, Sri Ramachandra University.
Over the last few decades the death toll due to Cancer is seemingly increasing at a very rapid rate. A recent statistical data shows that, 10 million people died of Cancer out of 58 million deaths worldwide. More than 70% of all Cancer deaths occur in underdeveloped and developing countries. In our Country India, the cancer prevalence is estimated to be around 2.5 million with over 8 Lakh new cases.
The various treatments available for cancer include Chemotherapy, Radiation therapy, Immunotherapy and surgery. In all these treatments the severity of side effects will be enormous. Some of the side effects are Nausea, Vomiting, Hair fall, Poor appetite, anxiety and fear, etc.
Many potential drugs that have been developed to treat cancer, have found limited success due to the lack of efficient and safe delivery systems of drugs, which allows the molecules to cross the cell plasma membrane. Electroporation is a technique utilizes precisely controlled electric fields of short duration and high intensities to open up transient pores through semi permeable membranes and tissues allowing targeted delivery of therapeutic materials including Drugs, Antibodies and Genes. Thus, Electroporation technique improves the efficiency of Drug delivery.
The principal mechanism of electrochemotherapy is the electroporation of cells in tumours; it increases drug effectiveness by enabling the drug to reach the intracellular targets. Other mechanisms of electro-chemo-therapy – for example, prolonged drug entrapment in tumours because of a transient induced but reversible reduction of tumour blood flow and a vascular disruption effect – are also involved in contributing to the overall effectiveness of the treatment.
Electroporation based cancer treatment approaches are currently undergoing intensive investigation in the field of drug delivery and gene therapy. B.S. Abdur Rahman University along with Purdue University, USA, initiated this collaborative research work back in 2007. The First Phase of the work viz., cell culture is already completed successfully and both the Universities have published papers. For the Second Phase of the study, B.S. Abdur Rahman University joined hands with Sri Ramachandra University for animal testing. The Third Phase of the research work will include human samples.