Reducing death and suffering from cancer through research

The people of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) share many of the same health problems and challenges in providing affordable treatment to the majority of their peoples. They are now faced with an emerging epidemic of non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and respiratory disease) which they are ill-equipped to deal with, as well as established killers such as Malaria and Tuberculosis. They are experiencing rapid demographic, socio-economic & risk factor changes, particularly in urban areas and as this epidemiological transformation gathers pace, the incidence of cancer is expected to double in the next ten years to approximately 2 million cases a year.

There is an urgent need for research into the treatment and prevention of these cancers and we are therefore bringing together cancer physicians and scientists (mainly from India, Pakistan and the U.K.) into a cooperative group which focuses on research into the prevention and affordable treatment of cancer in South Asia. We also believe that there is much that can be learnt from populations of South Asian origin (mainly in the U.K. and U.S.A) in terms of how the epidemiological transition will affect South Asian countries in the future.

We have three main research objectives:

• To investigate the main causes for common cancers in South Asian populations, seeking both to discover new risk factors and modify existing ones, thereby potentially preventing millions of people from developing cancer.
• To assess the effectiveness of cancer prevention measures where resources are limited, such as low-cost screening programmes and educational programmes.
• To investigate the effectiveness of treatments which will be affordable to the majority of the Indian and Pakistani populations, including traditional Ayurvedic and Unaani medicines.

We will conduct research studies involving all countries in South Asia as well as people of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin in the U.K, for example:

• A case-control study investigating the epidemiology of colorectal cancer in looking both at environmental and genetic aetiological factors.
• A clinical trial assessing the effectiveness of Aspirin in preventing the recurrence of colorectal cancer.
• Comparison of cancer incidence rates in South Asian migrants to the U.K. to rates in India and Pakistan.