The National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) has signed an MoU with All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), an autonomous institute under the Ministry of AYUSH, for collaboration in the areas of cancer prevention, research and care by setting up a Center of Integrative Oncology at NICPR-Noida. This MoU would pave the way to carry forward the ongoing bilateral dialogue and facilitate collaboration with National Cancer Institute, USA.
Setting up of this centre is an outcome of the deliberations held in Indo-US workshop where in the invited US delegates from Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NIH) deliberated with the eminent experts from India having expertise in cancer research and other promising areas for two days to share experiences and work out a road map for future collaborations.
Commenting the NICPR-AIIA MoU, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, secretary, Department of Health Research (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) & director general, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), said, “The main aim is be to reduce the incidence of cancer for which preventive aspects with the strengths of AYUSH systems should be explored. The collaborative research should aim at developing traditional medicine as adjuvant therapy to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy.”
Ministry of AYUSH will also develop few centres of excellence for cancer research and has identified the AIIA and the Rajaram Deo Anadilal Poddar Ayurveda Cancer Research Institute, Mumbai, a unit of Centre Council for Research in Ayurveda Sciences (CCRAS). This is expected to be done by March, 2017.