Wanted: A digital roadmap

It will help in preventive and curative cancer management

- DR SANDEEP SEWLIKAR

Improvements in our knowledge of human biology at the molecular and genetic levels have opened avenues to a potential golden era of cancer care—where identification of a tumour’s unique signature is a reality, and where personalised therapies can be easily crafted using innovative diagnostic solutions.

Cancer continues to be a leading cause of mortality across the world. In India, there were more than 14 lakh cases in 2022. As per the National Cancer Registry, one in nine people are likely to develop cancer in their lifetime. Moreover, the incidence of cancer is estimated to increase by 12.8 per cent in 2025 as compared to 2020. How will we meet the challenge that cancer poses to future generations?

Advances in technology are reshaping health care, offering patients the means to track their health and giving clinicians deeper insights into the causes of cancer and its management. Technologies and innovations like CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), artificial intelligence, telehealth, cryo-electron microscopy, and robotic surgeries are accelerating the fight against cancer. Here, diagnostics tools play a crucial role. Innovative diagnostics technologies such as next-generation sequencing, liquid biopsies and artificial intelligence powered image analysis algorithms are facilitating an evolution in personalised cancer care.