Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russian scientists were close to creating vaccines for cancer that could soon be available to patients. Putin said in televised comments that "we have come very close to the creation of so-called cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs of a new generation". "I hope that soon they will be effectively used as methods of individual therapy," he added, speaking at a Moscow forum on future technologies.
Putin did not specify which types of cancer the proposed vaccines would target, nor how.
A number of countries and companies are working on cancer vaccines. Last year the UK government signed an agreement with Germany-based BioNTech to launch clinical trials providing "personalised cancer treatments", aiming to reach 10,000 patients by 2030.
Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck & Co are developing an experimental cancer vaccine that a mid-stage study showed to cut the chance of recurrence or death from melanoma - the most deadly skin cancer - by half after three years of treatment.
Is any country developing cancer?
There are currently six licensed vaccines against human papillomaviruses (HPV) that cause many cancers, including cervical cancer, according to the World Health Organization, as well as vaccines against hepatitis B (HBV), which can lead to liver cancer.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Russia developed its own Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 and sold it to a number of countries, although domestically it ran up against widespread public reluctance to get vaccinated.
Putin himself said he had taken Sputnik, in a bid to assure people of its efficacy and safety.
India may see 20 lakh cancer cases per year by 2026
India will see a surge in cancer cases in the coming years which can go up to 20 lakhs per year by 2026, as estimated by AIIMS based on the data provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in February 2023. Dr SVS Deo, Professor of Surgical Oncology at AIIMS Delhi, while speaking to news agency ANI stated that India is witnessing a surge in the number of cancer patients.
He further stated, "13-14 lakh people are getting affected by the deadly disease each year and the figure could go in excess of 20 lakhs by the year 2026."
The AIIMS doctor stated that people have the misconception about cancer being incurable which is completely dubious. He explained that the disease can be cured if diagnosed on time and this is why an awareness campaign is being run to impart this information to the public.
If Russia, as claimed by President Putin, become successful it would help India to get the numbers down. According to a new study published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia journal, India registered about 12 lakh new cancer cases and 9.3 lakh deaths in 2019, becoming the second highest contributor to the disease burden in Asia for that year.
(With inputs from agencies)
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