UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Established in 1941, Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) is the largest and busiest (nearly 35,000 new registrations every year) dedicated comprehensive cancer center in the Indian subcontinent. Since tobacco related cancers represent over 60% of the cancer burden in India, tobacco control activities form the bulk of the service education and research activities of the centre.

A cancer centre can essentially partner cancer control organizations in tobacco control at three levels:

1.Local - NGOs, State Government/Municipalities, Educational institutions etc.

2.National/Regional - National Government, National and Regional NGOs, WHO, World Bank etc.

3.International Level - UICC, WHO, FCTC, American Cancer Society etc.

Further, the partnership can be in four areas:

1.Prevention activities - Education and Awareness, Screening/early detection, treatment of pre/early cancers, tobacco cessation.

2.Training - Providing training to individuals and organizations.

3.Research - Epidemiological, Clinical and Basic research.

4.Advocacy - Providing evidence to the policy makers and media, actively lobbying for tobacco control measures.

The Tata Memorial Centre has been involved in all four areas at all three levels.

1.Local - Working with Municipal Schools (and other educational institutions), NGOs - ACT India, Salaam Bombay, CPAA, Niramaya and several other NGOs, for furthering education and awareness activities, training of volunteers, screening tobacco users and tobacco cessation activities and advocacy with the State Government for effective legislation.

2.National/Regional - Working with the Ministry of Health, Govt. of India, for formulating tobacco control legislation and TC activities as part of the NCCP, ICMR and Department of Biotechnology. Partnering with the AFTC (Advocacy Forum for Tobacco Control). Working with WHO-India and SEARO (Global Youth Tobacco Survey GYTS, School Personnel Survey GSPS, Tobacco Cessation Clinics). The tobacco carcinogenesis group at Tata Memorial Centre is engaged in chemical analysis of various tobacco products, examination of the bioactivity of various tobacco products, bio-monitoring of habitués, cyto-genetic, molecular mechanisms and early detection of oral cancer etc. The group is also pursuing research towards the identification and delineation of the mechanisms of chemo-preventive action of agents from Indian foods, and development of mechanism-based biomarkers.

3.International: Working with the UICC, IAEA, WHO (AFTC), American Cancer Society, Advocacy Institute, Washington DC (Advocacy Fellows Programmes - conducted every year since 2002).