Cancer has emerged as a major killer disease in India. By currently available statistics, approximately 9 lakh new cases of cancer are expected to develop every year in India. National cancer registry figures suggest that one out of every 10 to 16 persons from the urban population in India may get cancer in his lifetime.
An analysis of WHO on the control of oral cancers in developing countries like India, stresses on the need for primary prevention. For the cancer of cervix, the method widely accepted in developed countries, is the PAP smear test. However, use of this method, as a screening programme, does seem difficult in our country given the paucity of trained staff and financial constraints. Mammography used as a primary screening method in developed countries is also costly as it involves imaging technologies and complex quality control procedures with enormous cost in terms of staff and equipment. Cancer of the gastro intestinal tract is usually presented to the clinician at an advanced stage because of the fact that these lesion are not easily seen by the patients or family doctors, which in turn causes a loss of valuable time before the diagnosis is established and the treatment begins. An early detection technique can help solve this problem.
The need of the cancer clinicians in our country is thus cost–effective screening technique for the early detection of malignant tumors in the body. Sahasrabudhe et al have developed precisely such a simple blood screening technique (ELISA) using Tumor Mimetic Cell Surface Antigens (TMCS) as a marker. TMCS is patented in India and the USA. In this technique, the presence of malignant tumors in the body is detected indirectly by detecting the presence of lymphocytes sensitized specifically to tumors specific cell surface markers. The method involves the following steps:
- Collection of 5cc peripheral blood sample from the person.
- Isolation of lymphocytes from the collected blood sample.
- Blocking of endogenous peroxidase activity.
- Treatment of such lymphocytes with Tumor Mimetic Cell Surface Antigens (TMCS) tagged with enzyme peroxydase and an appropriate substrate.
- Determination of Optical Density (OD) value at 492mm without a differential filter.