Manish Kumar
Post News Network
New Delhi, August 18: The Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC), Cuttack has conducted the maximum number of clinical trials in the state seeking better medical alternatives for the patients.
According to the National Clinical Trial Registry of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, a total of 184 registered clinical trials were conducted in Orissa.
The trials were conducted by government hospitals/research centres, private medical colleges and alternative medical system research units.
According to the registry’s records, the AHRCC registered for 22 such clinical trials.
Many other institutions also tried new medicines, natural products, procedures seeking better and alternative solutions for several ailments.
The registry claims that besides AHRCC, which is the premier government-run oncology tertiary care of Orissa, High Tech Medical College, Bhubaneswar, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Bhubaneswar (17), SCB Medical College, Cuttack (12) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar (9) figured among the leading institutions from the state in terms of the number of clinical trials.
In AHRCC, most of the clinical trials were for new medicines for treatment of different types of cancer. The trials included the study of the effects of Rituximab injection (Hetero) in Indians suffering from varieties of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, single arm trial with Afatinib to assess its safety in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring EGFR mutations among others.
Similarly, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar tried to either check the efficacy of new drugs or compare different sets of drugs on single ailment.
These included – use of Fenspiride in inflammation of the sinuses, airspaces within the bones of the face, a clinical trial to study safety and efficacy of Bepotastine besilate in patient with allergic rhinitis among others.