When it comes to cancer, India carries a massive burden – 2.5 million active cases every year and growing. While there have been huge advancements in precision based cancer treatments, a lot of it remains out of bounds for Indians because personalised cancer treatments like targeted therapies and immunotherapy are prohibitively expensive.
Not just that, the primary genomic data we rely on to design personalised cancer care is derived from a Caucasian population.
Now an Indian company has launched an Indian Population specific cancer gene panel. The panel, called TARGT Indiegene, is believed to be India’s largest and first population-specific tumour gene panel derived from Whole Exome and Whole Transcriptome data of over 1500 cancer patients across 28 different cancer types.
Filling a Need Gap
Current tumor gene panels available in India rely of data from Caucasian population, developed in the US, UK and Europe. Oncologists say applying the same markers across geography doesn't serve the purpose of precision-based medicine.
Precision medicine is a way for healthcare providers to plan specific care for their patients, based on the genes of their cancer cells. It is highly personalised treatment types of which are targeted therapies and immunotherapy.
The company behind the panel claims the TARGT Indiegene ' cancer panel is based on insights generated from tumour tissues of Indian cancer patients. The research has provided insights into 1044 unique genes across 28 different cancer types with mutational landscape and associated mutations. The study was conducted across 1500 cancer patients.
"Our vision is to leverage technology to develop affordable solutions to personalise patient care in oncology. With TARGT Indiegene, we want to deliver the promise of precision to help personalise the treatment for Indian cancer patients."Hitesh Goswami, CEO, 4baseCare
Affordability Remains the Challenge
The development of such panels are believed to help reduce cost. Doctors also say tests carried out in India will also help reduce the turnaround time in getting the results.
Dr Kumar Prabhash, Professor and Medical Oncologist at TMH, Mumbai and one of the collaborator for the project said that with such massive research on Indian patient cohort and "the availability of TARGT Indiegene kind of a cancer gene panel validated on Indian patient tumour samples, the oncologists will have better decision making capability lead by science towards precision oncology solutions that will improve the affordability and timely availability of accurate gene-testing reports for cancer patients."
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)