:: Prashanti Cancer Care Mission ::

To undertake BC translational research - which encompasses interdisciplinary and innovative approaches in:

Epidemiology and Public Health Initiatives for Community-based BC Surveillance
Breast Imaging and Analysis
Oncoplastic Breast Surgery Outcomes
Radiation Therapy influence on Breast Oncoplastic Surgery Outcomes
Novel Chemotherapeutic agents for BC Treatment

Breast Cancer Research Themes

Schematic representation of the research portfolio at PCCM

Breast Cancer Clinical Registry and Biobank

Breast Cancer Clinical Registry (BCCR) is a collection of information about healthy individuals and patients that is focused around various topics related to BC. We have obtained appropriate approval from Independent Ethics Committee for such personal data collection. After the counseling and informed consent process at the outset, it is expected that that individuals provide information about themselves to these registries on a voluntary basis or by follow-up from research staff from our Center.

At present we are collecting the following data fields for BCCR

Demographic: Age at diagnosis; menopausal status; ethnicity; family history; postcode; pregnancy history and hormone treatment etc.
Clinical: Tumor size; stage; treatment types and duration.
Pathological: Tumor size, type and grade; ER, PR and HER2 status.
Follow-up: Time to local and distant recurrence; distant recurrence site; time to last seen in clinic; time to and cause of death.
BCCR can serve as a foundation for several observational research projects in social medicine research areas such as community medicine, preventive oncology, epidemiology, and health analytics.

Prashanti Breast Cancer Biobank (PBCB) is a biorepository that stores biological samples (usually human) for ethical use in BC research. These include biopsied or surgically excised tissues, paraffin embedded tumor blocks, blood, serum, DNA, urine, saliva etc.

We have obtained appropriate approval from an Independent Ethics Committee for such personal bio-specimen collection and storage. PBCB will be the foundation of our future translational research projects in BC with themes in genomics, transcriptomics proteomics, metabolomics etc ( please see the schematic below)

The Biobank project strategy is depicted in the schematic below:

Innovative Breast Cancer Research Projects

Project Title	Innovation
Oncoplastic Breast Surgery Techniques	These novel surgical methods have been developed to obviate need for conventional total radical mastectomy (removal of breasts). This method can also be used to achieve better cosmetic outcomes and improvement of quality of life in BC patients post-surgery
One-stage Immediate Breast Reconstruction Surgery	The innovative single step surgery involving placement of a dual-lumen saline filled tissue expander as breast prosthesis. This method has been shown to avoid the unnecessary 2-stage breast reconstruction surgery
Sentinel Node Biopsy	This innovation in BC diagnosis aims at dye-based identification of a single node in the axilla that is cancer-affected. This technique can avoid the unnecessary biopsy of multiple axillary nodes during cancer diagnosis
Lower Dermal Sling Technique for IBRS	This surgical technique involves use of a lower dermal muscle which acts as a sling that can then cover the tissue expander/implant used in breast reconstruction. The sling provides additional layer of protection from radiation therapy induced complications such as tissue fibrosis thereby increase the patient acceptance
Ayurvedic Medicine for BC Treatment	Novel Ayurvedic adjuvants have been evaluated in Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy induced side-effects such as immunosuppression and dermatological changes. These herbal products have been found to safe, cheap and effective in mitigating the side-effects
Community Screening for Women Cancer in Pune	We have created a novel hi-tech, well-equipped mobile diagnostic unit that can be used for community screening of breast and cervical cancer in Pune city. This mobile unit has found wide-acceptance in the community due to the logistical ease and lower costs of screening in comparison with hospital-based screening
Establishment of Prashanti BC Clinical Biobank (PBCCB)	Creation of a BC tissue repository and clinical registry has allowed us to create a unique platform for multi-disciplinary translational research. Many collaborators have benefitted by direct access to biological samples and their derivatives which allow validation of exploratory laboratory finding for their clinical applications.
Novel Polymer-coated Silicone Implants for Breast Reconstruction Surgery	This multi-disciplinary and innovative research project is aimed at development of a product namely polymer-coated breast implants. Such novel implants are expected to mitigate radiation induced fibrosis in the breast tissue surrounding the breast implants.

Breast Cancer Research Agenda