There is a strong need for the development of new therapeutics for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma(cancer) as the existing therapeutics have poor efficacy, said Dr Animesh Dhar.
Dr Dhar, Cancer Biology, Kansas University Cancer CenterKansas City, Kansas, USA was speaking during the 20th Plenary session at the 108th Indian Science Congress hosted at the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University.
“It was our goal to understand the mechanism by which histone lysine demethylases regulate the malignant properties in pancreatic cancer. With that information, we were able to target that mechanism and impact the tumour growth in pancreatic cancer”, Dr Dhar added.
Speaking about the treatment of paediatric cancer, Dr JoyaChandra, Professor of Paediatrics Research and Epigenetics and the Molecular Carcinogenesis University of Texas said, Leukaemia and brain tumours are the most frequently occurring ones in children under 18 worldwide.
“Our work has focused on specific molecularly defined subsets of acute leukaemias, and brain tumours, which have poor treatment outcomes” Dr Chandra added.
While the examples of pediatric tumours mentioned earlier require improvements in treatment strategies, many paediatriccancers are considered curable, particularly paediatric acute lymphocytic leukaemias, Dr Chandra informed.
Dr Roy A Jensen, Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Director, University of Kansas Cancer Center, spoke regarding the need for building newer strategies to tackle breast cancer.
Current therapeutic interventions i.e. surgery and chemotherapy are really expensive and therefore may not be affordable for most patients in countries such as India. Therefore, there is a significant need to identify new, low-cost agents to treat this disease. Dr Jensen added.
Dr Animesh Dhar chaired the session and the proceedings were conducted by Saurabh Shivankar, Department of Pharmacy.
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