Mumbai: A new AI-based program will help Indian patients with a difficult-to-treat disease cancer find ongoing clinical trials that might best help them.
While “clinical trials” are often viewed with suspicion in India, patient support groups in the Western world help seriously ill cancer patients access clinical trials. “Clinical trials are the only way to get the treatment into clinics, but in India we imitate and implement Western findings,” she said. Dr Kumar PrabhashProfessor of Tata Memorial Hospital.
Now a health technology company, Oncoshot India, plans to make clinical trials more accessible to Indian cancer patients. Its AI-based program will connect Indian cancer patients to clinical trials, prompting global pharmaceutical companies to consider establishing local trials.
Today, it has partnered with five hospitals across the country and managed to create a database of 25,000 cancer patients. In Mumbai, he linked up with Jaslok Hospital, Pedder Road, last week. Dr. Milind Khadke of Jaslok Hospital said: “The Indian population of cancer patients will now have access to clinical trial comparison services.”
Oncoshot India’s Dr Nilesh Atre said, “In the next six months, we plan to partner with more hospitals to increase our database to 1 lakh.”
While the incidence of cancer in India is not as high as in first world countries, the volume of patients is huge due to the population. “India has the largest population of cancer patients at any given time, with an estimated 2 million new cases of cancer being detected in India,” said Dr. Atre.
But patients are unaware of cancer clinical trials. Vandana Gupta from the NGO V Care said that clinical trials are necessary for the benefit of patients. “However, patients should be given information, especially side effects, before the start of the trial. Every trial should have an advocate who can guide patients through each and every step of the trial. Instead of medical jargon, patients must be given the knowledge,” he said.
Concurring, Dr Prabash of Tata Memorial Hospital said only a handful of cancer patients with the financial means are able to go abroad and participate in clinical trials. “Clinical trials are big in the west, but small here,” he said.
A recent study by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers said India has an overall clinical trial share of about 3 percent.
About a decade ago, clinical trials were growing rapidly in India, but reports emerged of patients not being informed about the trial’s goals, the drug, or its side effects. “Back then, our clinical trials had several ethical problems. Consent forms were not available in local languages, and it was wrong to let patients sign on those documents,” said one doctor.
It is in this context that Dr. Atre said that he believes his database will help. “Data on the status of patients, their doctors and hospitals will be made available in a transparent manner, thus dispelling the perception that Indian hospitals are not organized,” he said.
