Cancer an Emerging Healthcare Crisis in Kerala

Abstract

Management of cancer remains one of the most rapidly progressing fields in medicine and has witnessed several novel developments in the recent years including immunotherapy, molecular targeted therapeutics and precision medicine. Over the past 40 years U.S government (National Institutes of Health) and many major global economies have invested heavily into basic research to understand the pathogenesis of cancer. This led to intense translational efforts by pharmaceutical companies and Universities and resulted in many ground breaking changes in cancer treatment globally. United States (US), being a leader in the cancer research witnessed a fivefold increase in immunotherapeutics in the past decade and tripling of cancer types that can be treated by at least one immunotherapeutic agent.  Another breakthrough has been the successful laboratory to clinical translation of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR T-cell) where patient’s cells are genetically engineered to attack the cancer cells.