Experts have expressed their concern over major drawback of present Chemotherapy, most commonly used therapeutic approach to the cancer treatment, for its selectivity and development of multi-drug resistance.

"Usually, drugs acting through one pathway are ineffective in other types of cancer. Hence, there is an urgent need of better chemotherapeutics," the experts felt during a scientific deliberations held during the International Conference on Cell Death in Cancer and Toxicology (CDCT-2018) on 21 February.

The conference, organised by CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, touched upon several key areas in Cancer Therapeutics and Management like recent updates in cancer research, novel therapies, managing relapse and future perspectives in handling the global scourge of cancer. The panelists were of the opinion that there is an urgent need to take the fruits of basic research in cancer therapeutics to the clinics to ensure more effective treatment strategies.

Novel diagnostic methods for early cancer detection is the need of the hour. Demographic differences between the Indian population and the rest of the world demands different treatment regimens to overcome cancer, they felt. The experts said targeted treatment strategies like immunotherapy could be one of the tools to manage clinical challenges. Dr Chitra Mandal from CSIR – Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata described the development of a non-toxic, new herbal chemotherapeutic that has shown promising results in counteracting different cancer types through multiple pathways.

"This potent anti-cancer agent can overcome drug resistance/relapse by targeting major cell survival pathways and cancer stem-like cells," she said. A panel discussion on Current Updates and Future Perspectives in Cancer Therapeutics followed the scientific presentations. The panelists included basic science researchers, and clinicians namely Drs. Hermann Stellar, Atan Gross, Raymond Birge, Rajiv Sarin, Arun Chaturvedi, Gaurav Agarwal, Anshuman Pandey, Manoj Kumar, Eli Arama and Anand Narain Srivastava.

Other distinguished scientists from abroad Dr. Dhyan Chandra, Sarit Larisch, Levi Beverly, Ruth Klauck, Xinjiang Wang and Manabu Kurukawa also made scientific presentations. A poster session was also organised where more than 80 presentations were displayed by the students from different parts of the country.