Fighting cancer has always been a particularly costly affair and the cost of monthly doses can run into lakhs which makes battling the disease almost impossible for the poor.

But all that could change with the Tata Memorial Hospital’s newest initiative to fight cancer with a method called metronomic treatment protocol. The therapy comprises daily consumption of a combination of low-cost drugs that have been around for decades and are hence cheaper and more easily available. This method could revolutionise cancer treatments in developing countries where most patients can’t afford costly drugs. The plan consists of patients taking medicine for 21 days or more before taking a break for a week and then the treatment is repeated the next month.

We talked to Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, cancer surgeon at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai to find out more about this revolutionary treatment plan and how it can benefit people. Excerpts from the interview:

What exactly is metronomic chemotherapy? How is it different?

Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi: Metronomic chemotherapy is defined as prolonged administration of low dose chemotherapy drugs to the cancer patients with lesser side effects and few treatment breaks. This mainly works by slowing the growth of blood vessels in the tumour and stimulating the immune response of the body against the tumour. This is in sharp contrast to the routine chemotherapeutic drugs where high doses are given to kill tumour cells but with significant side effects.

This treatment plan is used in cases where the first line of chemotherapeutic drugs has failed and is used for recurrent or metastatic disease (spread of cancer from one body part to another). The therapy is used as palliative chemotherapy for various cancers like multiple myeloma, ovarian, prostate, breast, head and neck cancer.

How is it taken? What are the different drugs that are used?

Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi: The drugs are usually given orally unlike routine chemotherapy drugs which are injected. Some the drugs being used include methotrexate, gefitinib and cyclophosphamide. These drugs are easy to use as they can be taken home and consumed orally with the symptoms in control and also because they don’t hamper a person’s life much and has few side-effects. Even in terminally ill patients, it’s a good method of palliative care (a method to alleviate the symptoms rather than the underlying cause).