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Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 26
The Physics Department of Panjab University (PU) has submitted a proposal for the Rs 742-crore Atal Advanced Research Institute for Cancer (AARIC).
One of the major components of the project will be a proton accelerator facility, which will be used for treatment and research. This will be the first cancer treatment facility based on proton therapy in North India, claims the project report of AARIC.
The research programme at the centre aims at not only promoting the basic research to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the initiation, promotion and metastasis of various cancers relevant to the Indian population, but it would also translate the basic research into clinical research for patient care from bench to bedside.
Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Raj Kumar has shown interest in the project and has held a number of meetings with Prof Navdeep Goyal, chairperson of the Physics Department, and Prof Devinder Mehta, who works in experimental nuclear physics.
VC discusses proposal with Nadda
The VC had declared in the Senate meeting on November 3 that the university would soon have AARIC, but funding issue is yet to be resolved. He had also met Health Minister JP Nadda in this regard.
The AARIC is expected to have a role in drug development and emerging therapies for treatment and prevention of cancer.
The project report said that it would bring together the available scientific expertise from physics, chemistry, medical, biology and engineering that would utilise biomedical techniques for cancer research and accelerator-based techniques for the treatment of the disease.
About 4.7 lakh new cases of cancer are detected annually and result in the death of about 3.5 lakh people every year. The idea is inspired by the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Mumbai, which is the state-of-the-art R&D satellite of the Tata Memorial Hospital.
The centre
The centre will carry out collection, analysis and statistical evaluation of epidemiological data related to incidence, frequency and genomic variability of various types of cancers.
The in vivo imaging techniques and spectrometric methods for diagnosis and treatment of the disease will be put into practice. The modalities in this direction include the non-invasive techniques such as Raman spectroscopy and micro PET-SPECT-CT.
The centre will be divided into eight divisions — analytical chemistry; bioinformatics; cancer imaging; flow cytometry core; genomics; proteomics; tissue acquisition and cellular/molecular analysis core and prevention and early diagnostics.
Proton therapy
In the proton beam therapy, a beam of protons is used to irradiate diseased tissue. The advantage of the therapy is that as a charged particle, the dose is deposited over a narrow range of depth and there is minimal exist dose. The charged particles damage the DNA of cells, ultimately killing them or stopping their reproduction. “Cancerous cells are particularly vulnerable to attacks on DNA because of their high rate of division and their reduced abilities to repair DNA damage,” said the project report.
Cost
Cyclotron 230 MeV Rs 400 crore
33 KVA power sub-station, including civil work, Rs 5 crore
Infrastructure development of centre Rs 10 crore
Centre management (office, logistic support) and running Rs 10 crore
research and training programmes with manpower (recurring for 5 years)
Development of allied departments contributing to Centre Rs 2 crore
Support to institutes participating in the Centre Rs 5 crore
(recurring for 5 years)
Fulltime manpower Rs 25 crore
Total Rs 457 crore
Grand Total (Rs 285 crore + Rs 457 crore) = Rs 742 crore
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