Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer
The research and development campus of Tata Memorial Centre, where India's first indigenous CAR-T therapy was developed and low-cost trials are designed.
ACTREC opened in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, in 2002 as the research wing of Tata Memorial Centre, combining basic science laboratories, a clinical research centre and a hospital that has since expanded into a large cancer hospital with bone marrow transplant, proton and paediatric services. Its scientists, with IIT Bombay and ImmunoACT, developed talicabtagene autoleucel (NexCAR19), India's first approved CD19 CAR-T therapy, and ACTREC hosts the Tata Memorial biobank, genomics and proteomics facilities and the Clinical Research Secretariat that ran the low-dose nivolumab and metronomic chemotherapy trials. The campus also houses the Homi Bhabha National Institute's cancer biology PhD programme and an early-phase trial unit.
- Indigenous CAR-T (NexCAR19)
- Clinical Research Secretariat
- Cancer biology laboratories
- Bone marrow transplant
Sudeep Gupta leads India's largest cancer centre and its programme of pragmatic, affordable trials.
A surgeon-scientist whose low-cost randomised trials, from peritumoral lidocaine to timing of surgery, challenged assumptions in breast cancer.
Showed that very low-dose nivolumab added to cheap chemotherapy improves survival in head and neck cancer, a landmark for affordable immunotherapy.
Leads medical oncology at Tata Memorial and its programme of pragmatic trials that make treatments affordable.