Now Reading: Less than 10 cancer biobanks serve India’s 25 lakh patients
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Less than 10 cancer biobanks serve India’s 25 lakh patients
India has fewer than 10 dedicated cancer biobanks for an estimated 25 lakh people living with cancer, a shortage researchers say is slowing the development of diagnostics and treatments tailored to Indian…
India has fewer than 10 dedicated cancer biobanks for an estimated 25 lakh people living with cancer, a shortage researchers say is slowing the development of diagnostics and treatments tailored to Indian patients. The country registers over 14 lakh new cancer cases and 5.5 lakh deaths each year, yet biobanks, repositories that store tumour tissue, blood and DNA linked to patient histories, remain critically scarce.
Scientists at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, Tata Memorial Hospital and IIT-Madras told ThePrint that lack of a regulatory framework, inadequate funding and poor collaboration between hospitals and researchers are key reasons for the gap. Setting up one head-and-neck cancer biobank cost around Rs 4 crore, with annual maintenance of Rs 83 per sample, and no immediate financial returns. Age-standardised cancer incidence rose 26.4% between 1990 and 2023, from 84.8 to 107.2 per 100,000 people.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Cancer biobanks store tumour samples linked to patient histories, letting researchers find genetic mutations that drive disease. Without them, India's 25 lakh cancer patients and 14 lakh new cases each year rely on drug research done on Western populations, which may not match Indian genomics. The gap matters because targeted therapies, which match drugs to tumour genetics, now cost Rs 1-2 lakh per month. The 26.4% rise in age-standardised cancer incidence since 1990 only sharpens the need. Watch whether the upcoming National Cancer Registry programme or the new National Medical Devices Policy 2023 includes biobank funding.
Source: theprint.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
