INDOX expansion boosts cancer research across India

Five cancer centres across India are joining the INDOX Cancer Research Network throughout January 2013. INDOX is a partnership between the University of Oxford and leading Indian cancer centres which coordinates research aimed at reducing the death and suffering caused by cancer in India.

This expansion of the network brings the total number of Indian partner centres to 12, and was made possible by a grant from Sanofi Oncology as part of their commitment to help build research capacity for Indian cancer centres.

The addition of new centres to the network will allow INDOX to scale up its clinical research across India, including geographical areas where it did not previously have coverage. Three of the new centres will be in the previously unrepresented East of the country, including the Tata Medical Centre in Kolkata.

The new centres joining the network are: Birla Cancer Centre, SMS Medical College Hospital, Jaipur; Cachar Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Silchar; Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai; Gujarat Cancer Research Institute, Ahmedabad; Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata.

INDOX director Dr Raghib Ali of the University of Oxford said, "We now have centres in all the major regions of India, which is important for clinical research in a country of over a billion people. There are large differences in the lifestyle and habits of people in different parts of India as well as genetic variation, and the incidence of different types of cancer also varies by region."

Three of the new centres are already involved in the largest study of common causes of cancer ever conducted in India, which is coordinated by INDOX. The formal addition of these centres to the network will enable researchers to share resources and information more easily.