The Hindu : New Delhi News : Symposium on cervical cancer

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Sunday, Feb 06, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Symposium on cervical cancer

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 5. The Indian Association for Cancer Research (IACR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will be organising the 24th annual convention on "Human Papillomavirus and Cervical Cancer'' at the Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICPO) in neighbouring Noida from February 9 to 12.

Announcing this today, the ICMR director-general, Nirmal K. Ganguly, said in India, cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection was one of the highest in the world. "World over, an estimated 466,000 new cases of cervical cancer occur among women and of the 231,000 women who die of cervical cancer annually, about 80 per cent of them are from developing countries.''

The symposium on HPV and cervical cancer, which is focused mainly on early detection of cervical cancer and HPV vaccine, will be the first of its kind in India. The meeting has a special significance as it is being organised at a critical juncture when the Indian Government has agreed to start trial of the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer and ICPO, which has made major contribution in the field, has been recognised as a national co-ordinating centre for this vaccine programme in order to prevent the deaths of large number of cervical cancer patients in developing countries. The IACR meeting is a national cancer meeting clubbed with the international HPV symposium. The meeting will mainly focus on biology of HPV with special reference to early detection, epidemiology, molecular mechanism, and pharmacological interventions in view of introducing HPV vaccine programme. The meeting is being organised by collaborative efforts of the IACR and the ICPO of ICMR along with active support from other scientific bodies.

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