Tata Memorial Hospital

About: Tata Memorial Hospital is a healthcare organization based out in Mumbai, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Cancer & Breast cancer. The organization has 3187 authors who have published 4636 publications receiving 109143 citations.

Performance criteria for verbal autopsy-based systems to estimate national causes of death: development and application to the Indian Million Death Study

Abstract: Verbal autopsy (VA) has been proposed to determine the cause of death (COD) distributions in settings where most deaths occur without medical attention or certification. We develop performance criteria for VA-based COD systems and apply these to the Registrar General of India’s ongoing, nationally-representative Indian Million Death Study (MDS). Performance criteria include a low ill-defined proportion of deaths before old age; reproducibility, including consistency of COD distributions with independent resampling; differences in COD distribution of hospital, home, urban or rural deaths; age-, sex- and time-specific plausibility of specific diseases; stability and repeatability of dual physician coding; and the ability of the mortality classification system to capture a wide range of conditions. The introduction of the MDS in India reduced the proportion of ill-defined deaths before age 70 years from 13% to 4%. The cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMFs) at ages 5 to 69 years for independently resampled deaths and the MDS were very similar across 19 disease categories. By contrast, CSMFs at these ages differed between hospital and home deaths and between urban and rural deaths. Thus, reliance mostly on urban or hospital data can distort national estimates of CODs. Age-, sex- and time-specific patterns for various diseases were plausible. Initial physician agreement on COD occurred about two-thirds of the time. The MDS COD classification system was able to capture more eligible records than alternative classification systems. By these metrics, the Indian MDS performs well for deaths prior to age 70 years. The key implication for low- and middle-income countries where medical certification of death remains uncommon is to implement COD surveys that randomly sample all deaths, use simple but high-quality field work with built-in resampling, and use electronic rather than paper systems to expedite field work and coding. Simple criteria can evaluate the performance of VA-based COD systems. Despite the misclassification of VA, the MDS demonstrates that national surveys of CODs using VA are an order of magnitude better than the limited COD data previously available.

A multicenter Phase I safety study of intratumoral photoactivation of talaporfin sodium in patients with refractory solid tumors

Abstract: BACKGROUND Photodynamic therapy (PDT) currently is approved for the palliative treatment of malignancies of the aerodigestive tract using laser-activated porfimer sodium A new approach has been developed, based on intratumoral placement of a nonlaser light device that activates talaporfin sodium, that may expand the use of PDT to include a broader range of treatment-resistant malignancies The safety of this approach was assessed in a Phase I study in patients with locally advanced, refractory tumors METHODS Twenty-one patients with radiation-resistant or chemotherapy-resistant or inoperable malignancies were enrolled in four cohorts representing four light doses Patients were treated with a single intratumoral light device and a fixed photosensitizer dose Safety assessments were based on review of adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs), and independent evaluation of computed tomography (CT) images RESULTS The observed occurrence of treatment-related AEs and SAEs was minimal No cutaneous phototoxicity was observed in any patient The overall observed tumor response rate was 33% CONCLUSIONS Photoactivation of talaporfin sodium using intratumoral nonlaser light was found to be safe in the patient population of the current study at all light dose levels tested Cancer 2003 © 2003 American Cancer Society DOI 101002/cncr11708

Development of a specific anti-leukaemic serum for the treatment of leukaemia in clinics.

Abstract: LEUKAEMIC cells are antigenically indistinguishable from their normal counterparts and antibodies formed against them are therefore likely to exhibit cross-reactivity with normal cells. There is, however, a difference in the net surface charge1— the charge which regulates the ability of the antibodies to approach the target cells—which could be exploited to prepare antibodies specific to leukaemic cells. To this end, the net surface charge on the white blood cells of normal O group people was suitably altered by tagging the cells with chemicals such as 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (FDNB). These cells were then used as antigens for producing antibodies against human leukaemic cells in rabbits and horses. Here we give a brief account of the production of purified serum specific for leukaemic cells using immunized horse. A preliminary report on the production of specific anti-leukaemic serum from immunized rabbit has already been published2.