Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai

View of the outpatient department of CIA(WIA) taken at the time of the Golden Jubilee.

In February 2004, the Cancer Institute (WIA), an INCTR Associate Member and for long a valued collaborating institution, celebrated its 50th year. It was Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy, India’s first woman Medical Graduate, who conceived the idea of building a cancer center in India in 1927. Having recently cared for her sister during the terminal phase of her rectal cancer (which had been misdiagnosed), she visited the Royal Cancer Hospital in England, where she saw patients who had been cured of the same disease. Upon her return to India she resolved to develop a similar institution in Madras. The vision was not to become a reality for many years since Dr. Muthulakshmi was initially unable to persuade local authorities to support her project. Not willing to give up, she established the Cancer Relief Fund (WIA) and collected 200,000 rupees (approximately $4,000). With this, a donation of land, and additional funds (totaling 150,000 rupees) provided by the Governments of India and Madras, the first block of the CI (WIA), which included only 12 beds, was finally opened in June 1954. Patients began to be seen in January 1955. The medical staff (honorary) consisted of Dr. P. Arunachalam (the first Director), Dr. Krishnamurthi (Dr. Muthulakshmi’s son) and Dr. Shanta (the first recipient of INCTR’s Nazli Gad-el-Mawla Award and a member of INCTR’s Special Panel). The remainder of the staff consisted of two auxiliary nurses and one boy. In the subsequent 50 years, the CI (WIA) has grown into a large, well equipped cancer center with 301 beds, which has been selected by the Government of India as the Southern Regional Center of Cancer Research and Treatment.

The Golden Jubilee included a speech by the President of India, and scientific and medical presentations by distinguished Indian and guest speakers. INCTR was honored by an invitation to Dr. Magrath to deliver the Dr. Muthulakshmi Oration.

Meeting of the Indian Leukemia Study Group
(part of INCTR's Leukemia Strategy Group)

The ILSG met on two of the evenings in the course of the CI (WIA) Golden Jubilee Celebration to discuss progress in finalizing requirements for implementing the new treatment protocol for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, assisting smaller centers to use protocol MCP 841, and working in collaboration with other countries, particularly Egypt and China. It is hoped that patient accrual to the new protocol will begin this summer.

Chennai Meeting on Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, 9-11 February, 2004

Immediately following the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the CI (WIA) a meeting was held to discuss the development of effective therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), with special emphasis on progress made in India in the last 20 years. The meeting was jointly organized by CI (WIA) and INCTR and was supported by local funding and the NCI’s Office of International Affairs. The treatment protocol, MCP 841, which has been of particular importance to the treatment of ALL in India, was first used at CI (WIA) in the mid 1980's and has been subsequently adopted by many other treatment centers in India. This has resulted in marked improvement in five year survival rates from perhaps 20% or less to over 50% (Indian centers represented at the Chennai meeting reported survival rates of between 50-80% at five years). The conduct of this protocol in collaboration initially with the NCI and more recently with INCTR, provided incentive to develop high quality data management in participating centers, and has revealed that there are differences not only between Indian and “western” patients with ALL, but also among participating Indian centers - both with respect to patient characteristics and to treatment outcome. In general, Indian patients tend to have more advanced disease than patients in the USA or Europe and a higher proportion of a subtype of leukemia known as precursor T cell ALL. Fittingly, a review of the development of ALL treatment with protocol MCP 841 in three major Indian centers - CI (WIA), Tata Memorial Hospital and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences - has recently been accepted for publication in the European Journal of Cancer.

Members of the Leukemia Study Group of India (a subcommittee of INCTR's Leukemia Strategy Group) at their meeting in February 2004.

Annual General Assembly and Governing Council Meeting

The annual meetings, including a combined element, of the active members of INCTR and INCTR’s Governing Council took place on 12th March at the INCTR offices in Brussels. In addition to approving the past year’s expenditure and accepting the proposed budget for 2004, the progress report for 2003 was presented, and several important decisions were made. One was to develop an INCTR Charter, in which the principles governing the organizations collaborative activities would be clearly stated. All elements of the organization will be expected to adhere to these principles. Once completed, the Charter will be approved by the Governing Council, and presented at the Members Assembly in October 2004, in the course of the Annual Meeting. Another was to establish a funding committee. This will consist of Raj Shah (chairman), Nausherwan Burki and Sultan Al-Sedairy.

Establishment of a TELESYNERGY® System at the NCI Liaison Office

A meeting was held at the NCI Liaison Office, on 12th February, to discuss the use of the TELESYNERGY® equipment that had just been installed in space adjacent to the NCI Liaison Office (kindly provided by EORTC). Participants included Norman Coleman, Frank Govern and Ellen Feigel of NCI, Susanne Radtke of the NCI Liaison Office, and Ian Magrath and Melissa Adde of INCTR. The TELESYNERGY® system is a state-of-the-art telemedicine system developed by the Radiation Research and Radiation Oncology Sciences Programs of NCI in conjunction with members of NIH’s Center for Information Technology. TELESYNERGY® is capable of linking several centers by high speed telephone lines to enable videoconferencing and sharing of information, including high quality digitized images of X-rays or scans and histopathological sections of tumor biopsies, computer files (includ.ing slide shows), and prerecorded material. This equipment has been generously made available to INCTR by Drs. Coleman and Govern of the NCI. INCTR will use it to enhance communication with associate members and collaborating centers, to improve management of research projects, and to add a multimedia dimension to a variety of educational programs.

INCTR’s New Portal

In the course of the winter, CTIS, an INCTR associate member and partner organization, has worked hard to develop a web-based portal for use by INCTR’s network. This powerful system consists, in essence, of a dynamic, interactive cluster of linked web sites which can be managed by INCTR staff. The completed system will provide electronic locations whereby INCTR branches, offices, programs, strategy groups and committees will be able to store and exchange information, including images and documents, and to create shared “work spaces.” In addition to enhancing communication and permitting the more effective management of a broad range of INCTR activities, the portal, which will include powerful databases, will eventually be used as a research and educational tool which will greatly improve access of INCTR members to a broad range of information relevant to cancer control. INCTR is grateful to CTIS, and particularly to its Founder and CEO, Raj Shah, for this generous and valuable contribution.

Members of INCTR's Governing Council and invited guests posed for this picture after the February 2004 meeting.

Meeting of INCTR’s New Information Technology (IT) Committee

INCTR’s considerably enhanced access to sophisticated information technology has led to the need for a committee to ensure that IT is used to maximal advantage throughout the network. A first meeting of this newly formed committee, chaired by Raj Shah, took place on 8th March at the Brussels offices.

Meeting of the Corporate Liaison Committee