Cancer medicines for as low as Rs 1,000 a month on way

MUMBAI: It’s widely known that a month’s dose of cancer drugscan costlakhs, but what isn’t common knowledge is that Tata Memorial Hospital’s doctors are working on alternatives that could cost less than Rs 1,000 a month.

Dubbed the metronomic treatment protocol, it comprises daily consumption of a combination of low-dose medicines that are cheap because they have been around for decades. “Thereis no need to worry about patents or recovery of billions spent on research ,” said Dr Shripad Banavali, head of the medical oncology department of Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, who has been working on the low-dose, low-cost therapies.

“The metronomics experiment is path-breaking in terms of providing good quality and affordable cancer care for a majority of the over 10 lakh cancer cases diagnosed in India each year,” said his colleague Dr Surendra Shastri. These findings could revolutionize cancer care in developing countries, he added. The catch is this branch is still in research stage. In metronomic therapies, the drugs are given at very low doses. “But side-effects are fewer and patientshave a good quality of life,’’ said Banavali.

COMMON DRUGS, SPECIAL TREATMENT

Tata Memorial Hospital develops metronomic chemotherapy or continuous low-dose therapy

In it, affordable and well-known drugs are repositioned as cancer killers For instance, anti-diabetic drug metformin for aggressive breast cancer Anti-seizure drug sodium valproate against acute myeloid leukemia Anti-hypertensive drug propranolol against angiosarcoma (cancer of blood vessels)

METRONOMICS COMES FROM MUSIC — musicians use the metronome to mark time and hence rhythm. Patients take the medicines for 21 days or more before taking a break of a week. The cycle continues for months.