Symposium on cancer held

With a view to foster awareness, collaboration and innovation in cancer research and public health policy, India Innovation Research Center, in partnership with Invictus Oncology, hosted the first annual symposium on ‘living with cancer’ on Friday. The symposium aimed to create a dialogue on the future of cancer research and how to best tackle the imminent public health challenge in India. Shiladitya Sengupta, co-founder of Invictus Oncology, said, ‘We need to develop next-generation cancer drugs that are both effective and affordable. At Invictus, we are delivering innovation in the space that will have global impact. The finest scientists are coming together to invent novel ways to combat cancer.’ Lalit Kumar of AIIMS, co-host of the symposium, reiterated the urgency in curtailing the increasing incidence of cancer in India. ‘With the increase in life expectancy, cancer is likely to increase and will be an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the next three decades.’  The event was attended by Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Lisa Ray, actor and cancer survivor and Shiladitya Sengupta professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Invictus Oncology.