| Is India
the cancer capital of the world?
One
may be inclined to answer the above question in the affirmative after
going through the results of a study done by ICMR (Indian Council for
Medical Research) and published in the prestigious British Journal of
Medicine (BMJ 2005; 330:215 - 29th January 2005).
§
Aizawl in Mizoram has the world’s highest incidence of lower
pharyngeal and tongue cancers among men.
§
New Delhi has the world’s highest incidence of gall-bladder cancer
in women.
§
Wardha in Maharashtra has the world’s highest incidence of mouth
cancer.
§
Pondicherry is one among the world’s leaders in mouth and tongue
cancers in men.
§
Kohima in Nagaland has one
of the world’s highest incidence rates of nasopharyngeal
cancer.
Passive
smoking in children linked to development of lung cancer in later
life.
A
recent article in the British Medical Journal confirms what we have
suspected all along. Children who are exposed to passive smoking have a
3.6 times increased risk of developing lung cancer as adults. This
conclusion has been reached after studying a cohort of more than 3 lakh
people in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and
Nutrition (EPIC). The author, Dr. P. Vineis from Imperial
College London, in conclusion of the study says “Frequent exposure to
environmental tobacco smoke during childhood was associated
with lung cancer in adulthood (hazard ratio 3.63, 1.19 to
11.11, for daily exposure for many hours
Stem Cell Therapy to cure Parkinson's
Disease.
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a common
degenerative disease of the brain, which affects almost 2 percent of the
population above the age of 65 years. It is caused by progressive
degeneration of nerve cells that produce a chemical called
dopamine. Because of this lack of Dopamine in the brain, patients
with PD suffer from tremors, rigidity and slowness of movements.
Currently the treatment for this disease is by giving drugs that
increase the level of dopamine in the brain. (Giving dopamine injections
does not help since injected dopamine cannot enter the brain where it is
needed.) However, drug therapy is far from satisfactory because it is
not 100 percent effective and also because of the numerous side effects
that it can cause. It is in this background that scientists thought of
the idea of transplanting embryonic stem cells into the brain of
patients with PD. It is believed that these transplanted stem cells
could be induced to differentiate into Dopamine producing nerve cells in
the brain thus curing the disease.
Scientists have succeeded in using
this technique to improve the symptoms in laboratory rats and are
optimistic that such a therapy will be available for treating PD in
humans in the foreseeable future.
For more information on stem cells watch
for the next issue of the Newsletter!
Please send your views and comments on this
newsletter to info@csihospitalblr.org or
dr.savio@csihospitalblr.org
Visit us at http://www.csihospitalblr.org
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