Director's Desk

Dr. Shalini Singh, Director, NICPR

National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research has a unique approach of amalgamating

strong basic, clinical and applied research, involving medical and community practice with an

emphasis on early detection, primary and secondary prevention of cancer. The thrust areas of

research include the cancer of the uterine cervix, breast and oral cavity.

Health Promotion Clinic has been set up in the Institute’s premises and functions on all working

days. Individuals attending this clinic are examined by doctors for blood sugar, blood pressure,

BMI and screening for cervical, breast and oral cancer is also done. We provide diagnostic and

referral services for Pap smears, Colposcopy, Fine needle aspiration cytology, Effusion cytology

and Histopathology to Lok Nayak hospital, New Delhi and ESI & District hospitals, CGHS

dispensary, Sai Sansthan and TB centres across Noida. The Clinical division of the Institute

extends the cancer screening facilities to the rural areas of Noida by organizing screening camps

at primary health centre (PHC) and community health centres (CHC) with the help of State Health

authorities. Strategic alliances have been made with AIIMS, New Delhi and Rajiv Gandhi Cancer

Research Institute, Rohini and AIPH, Odisha

an India-specific web portal (http://cancerindia.org.in/) has been designed to provide

comprehensive knowledge to the general public on prevalent cancers in our country.

To bridge the gap between clinicians and translational researchers, NICPR organizes various

workshops and brain storming sessions from time to time and encourages stimulating collaborative

projects .NICPR has made significant progress both in scientific and developmental fronts. It will

continue to work hard to reach greater heights in cancer research for benefit and welfare of

mankind.

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

in Drug Discovery Dr Subhash M Agarwal, Scientist-E, Bioinformatics Division, ICMR-NICPR

Traditionally, the drug discovery projects involved the experimental identification of protein drug

targets responsible for the disease followed by screening using various biological and chemical

testing methods to find relevant small molecule acting against the drug target. To undertake such

a huge task it required the huge investment for creating experimental labs (infrastructure),

standardizing assays, manpower deployment and years of hard work. As a result, the development

of successful drug required nearly 10-15 years and huge investment. However, this paradigm was

shifted in early 2000 when bioinformatics came to forefront as the above experimental approaches

were complemented with insilico approaches wherein genomic comparative approaches were used

for identification of drug targets. The completion of human genome project resulted in

identification of more and more drug targets which were then crystallised and the three-

dimensional structure of targets were deposited in the databases. These developments furthered

the cause of structure based drug discovery (SBDD) and led to development of virtual screening

and docking approaches to short-list a few suitable hit candidates for experimental drug discovery

thereby reducing the cost and time involved. Yet, the researchers were not satisfied as it was felt

that the pace of drug discovery needs to be fast tracked for better healthcare as there is a growing

need of drugs for diseases which are not treatable so far, detection of newer diseases as well as

problem of resistance to existing drugs. Moreover, with the growing population it is the need of

the hour that the drug discovery process is not only fast-paced but also involves lesser investment

so that the patients can be provided with cheaper drugs and be benefited. So, in the last 2-3 years,

the advancement in the field of computational biology has shifted the drug discovery approach

towards the development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

methods to utilize big data for NCE discovery. These approaches are dependent on data to identify

patterns which then can be used for making predictions. The biomedical researchers and pharma

companies have already taken their stride forward and are integrating big data and ML approaches

to discover newer compounds. At each stage of drug discovery various applications of ML are

being identified and implemented. For example: to identify novel targets, develop new biomarkers

for prognosis, improve small-molecule compound design and optimization etc. These tools are

exhibiting the potential and strength to move drug screening from the experimental to a virtual lab

thereby increasing the speed and accuracy while lowering the cost of development. However, it is

still in early stages and lot is expected from AI and MI which are expected to become the game-

changer in the area of Healthcare and Drug Discovery. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for

the best.

“It is being said that, it is not that Scientists with get replaced by Artifical

Intelligence or Machine learning tools but definitely those scientist who

use AI or ML will replace those who don’t use them.”

9th Hands-on Workshop on Cervical Cancer Screening for Pathologists (under the aegis of IAC) from 26th till 28th February, 2019.

Cancer Screening Workshop

World Cancer Day Celebration in NICPR Noida on 4th Feb 2019

Women’s Day Celebrations

Oral Cancer Screening Workshop 10th April 2019

No Tobacco Day: 31st May 2019, was celebrated in NICPR on 3rd June 2019

Nukkad Natak

International Yoga Day Celebration in NICPR Noida on 21st June 2019

Screening Camps:

The Clinical division of the Institute extends the cancer screening facilities to the rural areas of

Gautam Budh Nagar district by organizing screening camps at primary health centers (PHC) and

community health centers (CHC) with the help of State Health authorities. Screening and

awareness camps are also organized at CGHS clinics, ESI hospitals and nearby government

institutions. Individuals attending the camps are screened for oral (visual examination), breast

(clinical breast examination) and cervical cancer (Pap smear and VIA). Women diagnosed to have

abnormalities on clinical breast examination are invited to attend breast clinic at NICPR which is

run by Prof Anurag Srivastava, Head, Department of surgery, AIIMS and his team on every Friday

2 pm. Women positive on VIA examination and Pap smear are invited to NICPR for further

evaluation using Colposcopy and biopsy if needed.

List of screening camps organized by NICPR

Sl No Place and date of camp Oral Exam Clinical Breast Exam Pap Smear

1. 8 JAN 2019 Sai Sansthan Charitable Hospital, Sector 40 Noida (U.P)

15 15

2. 5 FEB 2019 Sai Sansthan Charitable Hospital, Sector 40 Noida (U.P)

25 25

3. 5 MARCH 2019 , Sai Sansthan Charitable Hospital, Sector 40 Noida (U.P) (U.P)

20 20

1. 30 JANUARY 2019 Awareness talk on cervical and breast cancer,

at Kailash Nursing Institute, Greater Noida (U.P)

ONLINE CERTIFICATE COURSE ON SMOKELESS TOBACCO

This online course on Smokeless Tobacco Control is offered by the WHO FCTC Global

Knowledge Hub of Smokeless Tobacco (KH-SLT) at Indian Council of Medical Research -

National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research India (ICMR-NICPR) in collaboration with

Tobacco Control Research Branch (TCRB) at National Cancer Institute (NCI).World-renowned

experts of tobacco control from all across the world constitute the panel of faculty for the program.

The course has been carved out especially keeping in cognizance of the different training and

research needs with respect to SLT surveillance, control measures, industry tactics, laws, policies

and taxation measures. With vast expertise, this training course is one of its kind and perhaps the

only in the world covering all aspects of SLT control.

From this course, students will gain an in-depth understanding of the history and reach of the SLT

epidemic; the working and tactics of the tobacco industry; strategies and methods for informing

and educating individuals, communities, and countries. This short-term course equips participants

with skills and strategies necessary in supporting effective SLT control policy development,

implementation and evaluation. Read More (http://www.nicpr.res.in/sltcourse/)

List of Online certificate Course on Smokeless Tobacco Sessions organized by NICPR

Sessions Topics

Session 1 (3 May, 2019) SLT epidemic & Control

Session 2 (10 May, 2019) Adverse health effects of SLT

Session 3 (17 May, 2019) Monitoring Smokeless Tobacco (SLT) control efforts and surveillance

Session 4 (24 May, 2019) SLT and oral premalignant conditions

Session 5 (31 May, 2019) Non-Cigarette Products and Dual Use Burden: Challenges and Opportunities

Session 6 (7 June, 2019) Tobacco Cessation Strategies for Smokeless Tobacco Users (Article 14)

Session 7 (14 June, 2019) FCTC & MPOWER

Session 8 (21 June, 2019 BAN - Tobacco Advertising Promotion and Sponsorship

(TAPS) (Article 13)

Publications: 2019(Jan - June)

1. Van Dyne EA, Hallowell BD, Saraiya M, Senkomago V, Patel SA, Agrawal S, Ghosh A,

Saraf D, Mehrotra R, Dhillon PK. Establishing Baseline Cervical Cancer Screening

Coverage - India, 2015-2016. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019 Jan 11;68(1):14-19.

doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6801a4. PubMed PMID: 30629571.

2. Tripathi R, Rath G, Sharma V, Hussain S, Sharma S, Bharadwaj M, Mehrotra R. HES1

Protein Modulates Human Papillomavirus-Mediated Carcinoma of the Uterine Cervix. J

Glob Oncol. 2019 Jan;(2019):1-10. doi: 10.1200/JGO.18.00141. PubMed PMID:

30615540.

3. Gupta R, Gupta S, Mehrotra R, Sodhani P. Risk factors of breast cancer and breast self-

examination in early detection: systematic review of awareness among Indian women in

community and health care professionals. J Public Health (Oxf). 2019 Jan 4. doi:

10.1093/pubmed/fdy228. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 0608560.

4. Gupta R, Gupta S, Sharma S, Sinha DN, Mehrotra R. Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

Among Smokeless Tobacco Users: Results of Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of

Global Data. Nicotine Tob Res. 2019 Jan 1;21(1):25-31. doi: 10.1093/ntr/nty002. PubMed

PMID: 29325111.

5. Gupta AK, Tulsyan S, Bharadwaj M, Mehrotra R.. Grass roots approach to control levels

of carcinogenic nitrosamines, NNN and NNK in smokeless tobacco products. Food Chem

Toxicol 2019 Feb;124:359-366. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2018.12.011. Epub 2018 Dec 10.

6. Tripathi R, Rath G, Jawanjal P, Bharadwaj M, Mehrotra R. Cyclin D1 protein affecting

global women's health by regulating HPV mediated adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix.

Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 22;9(1):5019. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-41394-9.

7. Thakur N, Singhal P, Mehrotra R, Bharadwaj M Impacts of Single Nucleotide

Polymorphisms in three MicroRNAs (miR-146a, miR-196a2 and miR-499) on

Susceptibility to Cervical Cancer among Indian Women. . Biosci Rep. 2019 Mar 14. pii:

BSR20180723. doi: 10.1042/BSR20180723. [Epub ahead of print]

8. Nazir SU, Kumar R, Dil-Afroze, Rasool I, Bondhopadhyay B, Singh A, Tripathi R,

Singh N, Khan A, Tanwar P, Agrawal U, Mehrotra R, Hussain S. Differential

expression of Ets-1 in breast cancer among North Indian population. J Cell

Biochem. 2019 Apr 23. doi: 10.1002/jcb.28716. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID:

31016780.

9. Mehrotra R, Yadav A, Sinha DN, Parascandola M, John RM, Ayo-Yusuf O, Nargis N,

Hatsukami DK, Warnakulasuriya S, Straif K, Siddiqi K, Gupta PC. Smokeless tobacco

control in 180 countries across the globe: call to action for full implementation

of WHO FCTC measures. Lancet Oncol. 2019 Apr;20(4):e208-e217. doi:

10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30084-1. Review. PubMed PMID: 30942182.

10. Kedar A, Kannan R, Mehrotra R, Hariprasad R. Implementation of

Population-based Cancer Screening Program in a Pilot Study from India: Views from

Health Personnel. Indian J Community Med. 2019 Jan-Mar;44(1):68-70. doi:

10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_268_18. PubMed PMID: 30983720; PubMed Central PMCID:

PMC6437804.

11. Dhanasekaran K, Verma C, Kumar V, Hariprasad R, Gupta R, Gupta S, Mehrotra R.

Cervical Cancer Screening Services at Tertiary Healthcare Facility: An Alternative

Approach. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2019 Apr 29;20(4):1265-1269. PubMed PMID:

31030504.

12. Gupta AK, Tulsyan S, Bharadwaj M, Mehrotra R. Systematic Review on Cytotoxic and

Anticancer Potential of N-Substituted Isatins as Novel Class of Compounds Useful in

Multidrug-Resistant Cancer Therapy: In Silico and In Vitro Analysis. Top Curr Chem

(Cham). 2019 May 9;377(3):15. doi: 10.1007/s4061-019-0240-9. PubMed PMID:

31073777.

13. Kaur J, Sharma A, Kumar A, Bhartiya D, Sinha DN, Kumari S, Gupta R, Mehrotra R,

Singh H. SLTChemDB: A database of chemical compounds present in Smokeless tobacco

products. Sci Rep. 2019 May 9;9(1):7142. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-43559-y.PubMed

PMID: 31073139.

14. Sharma V, Nandan A, Singh H, Agarwal S, Tripathi R, Sinha DN, Mehrotra R.Events of

alternative splicing in head and neck cancer via RNA sequencing - anupdate. BMC

Genomics. 2019 Jun 3;20(1):442. doi: 10.1186/s12864-019-5794-y. PubMed PMID:

31159745; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6545735.

15. Sharma U, Singhal P, Bandil K, Patle R, Kumar A, Neyaz K, Bose S, Kumar Dewan A,

Mehrotra R, Sharma V, Bharadwaj M. Genetic variations of TLRs and their association

with HPV/EBV, co-infection along with nicotine exposure in the development of

premalignant/malignant lesions of the oral cavity in Indian population. Cancer Epidemiol.

2019 May 23;61:38-49. doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2019.05.003. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed

PMID: 31129425.

16. Nethan ST, Hariprasad R, Babu R, Kumar V, Sharma S, Mehrotra R. Project ECHO: a

Potential Best-Practice Tool for Training Healthcare Providers in Oral Cancer Screening

and Tobacco Cessation. J Cancer Educ. 2019 May 23. doi: 10.1007/s13187-019-01549-8.

[Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31124001.

17. Mehrotra R, Singh PK. Mahatma Gandhi's Perspective on Tobacco. Indian J Med Res.

2019 Jan;149(Suppl):S137-S139. doi: 10.4103/0971-5916.251670. PubMed PMID:

31070190; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6515733.

18. Hussain S, Singh A, Nazir SU, Tulsyan S, Khan A, Kumar R, Bashir N, Tanwar P,

Mehrotra R. Cancer drug resistance: A fleet to conquer. J Cell Biochem. 2019 Apr 29. doi:

10.1002/jcb.28782. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31037763.

.

Other activities

Staff members retired after attaining the age of superannuation in the following months. Institute

has given the farewell to all the members in the respective months.

S. No Name of employee Designation Date of Retirement

1 Mr. Kunjoomon PV MTS(G) 31-01-2019

2 Mr. RaghunandanManjhi Lab Asstt 28-02-2019

3 Dr. Aditya Parashari Scientist D 31-05-2019

4 Mr. Brijpal Sharma MTS(LT) 30-06-2019

5 Mr. Bishan Singh Technician C 30-06-2019