BENGALURU: According to Indian Council of Medical Research, 8 lakh cancer cases are diagnosed each year in India, of which 5.5 lakh are cases of head and neck cancer. Karnataka is the oral cancer capital of the country. A lifestyle-related cancer condition, head and neck cancer develops mostly due to high usage of tobacco-related products and alcohol, and is diagnosed in most cases only in the advanced stage.
Immunotheraphy is the latest technique that has been found successful among patients suffering from head and neck cancer. Unfortunately, chemotherapy still remains the most prescribed cancer treatment. Immunotherapy, which is considered a breakthrough innovation in cancer treatment, is still limited to a few patients.
Immunotherapy is the process of activating the patient’s immune cells to fight against cancer cells. Through immunotheraphy, the immune cells are boosted in three ways - through drugs, vaccination and cell therapy, to kill cancer cells. Dr Vishal Rao U S, head and neck cancer surgeon, Health Care Global Hospital, said, “The main research in this area springs from the question why does the immune system not intervene when cancer cells grow? Cancer cells generally tend to escape immune surveillance.”
iCREST, the HCG wing for cellular therapies (immunotherapy), is currently carrying out work targeting it for patients who have failed first line therapies or have contraindications, he said. (A contraindication is a situation in which a drug, procedure or surgery should not be used because it may be harmful to the person).
“In head and neck cancer, we currently have 8-9 patients receiving this. One patient worth mentioning was suffering from anaplastic thyroid cancer - one of the worst and deadliest cancers that virtually strangles a person once diagnosed within a period of a few weeks to months,” Dr Rao said.
“He was in the ICU and his family had given up. Then they discussed this option and tried it at iCREST. Today, it has been one year and he is one of the only cases in my career whose tracheostomy (an incision in the windpipe made to relieve an obstruction to breathing) and feeding tubes I have removed,” he said.
Affordability a problem
Dr Vijay Agarwal, senior consultant, medical oncology, HCG, said, “There are three things that iCREST focuses on. First, the drugs are expensive. They cost around `2 lakh to `4 lakh per dose and have to be given every two to three weeks. Usually 13-15 doses are required.”
Second, activated TCell lymphocyte infusion. “Lymphocytes are immune cells that are taken out by drawing blood. Then they are activated and injected into the patient. They cost `25,000 per dose that is required to be given once a week for three weeks and then every three months as long as it works,” Dr Agarwal said.
Third, dendritic cell vaccine, in which biopsy of the tumour is done and a personalised vaccine is created for the patient based on the biopsy. “The whole package costs `3 lakh and each dose costs `50,000. It has to be given once a week for six weeks,” he said.
