Recently, the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), funded by the Department of Biotechnology, has created the world’s first database of genomic variations in oral cancer (dbGENVOC).
Important points:
- dbGENVOC, a comprehensive, flexible database framework, developed with an aim to allow potential users to access, query, browse and download clinically relevant somatic and germline variation data from Indian oral cancer patients.
- Somatic or acquired genomic variants are the most common cause of cancer, occurring from damage to genes in an individual cell during a person’s life.
- A germline variant occurs in gametes and is passed directly from a parent to a child at the time of conception. Cancers caused by germline pathogenic variants are called inherited or hereditary.
- It will be updated annually with variation data from new oral cancer patients from different regions of India and southeast Asia.
- According to the World Cancer Report 2020, India had an estimated 1.16 million new cancer cases in 2018.
- 1 in 10 Indians will develop cancer during their lifetime and 1 in 15 will die of the disease.
- The six most common cancer types in India are breast cancer, oral cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer, and colorectal cancer.
- Oral cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer among men in India, largely fuelled by tobacco-chewing.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT