16-Year Old Indian Devices Treatment for Incurable Cancer

Regardless of wherever they are or wherever they go, Indians never cease to leave a mark. The world has witnessed great and immensely talented people like Kalpana Chawla, the first astronaut of Indian American region, Google CEO- Sundar Pichai; Indian-Canadian politician, Harjit Sajjan; Indra Nooyi- CEO, Pepsico and many more and their notable work is celebrated all over.

They not only have left a prominent impression in the domains they excel at, but also on the young generation. One such inspired youth is 16-year-old Krtin Nithiyanandam who is currently a student of Sutton Grammar School, UK. Claiming to have found a treatment for the most deadly form of breast cancer which does not respond to drugs, Krtin aims at making the triple negative breast cancer treatable.

Also Read: Indian Origin Student Developed Drone that can Help People in Natural Disasters

He says that his mission was to focus on stopping cancer grow further. Hormones like oestrogen, progesterone and growth chemicals act as fuel and help breast cancer to grow, so the aim is to come up with a treatment rich in tamoxifen (a drug that stops the growth of these hormones) to cure cancer.

Krtin says that most of the cancers have receptors which make them respond to a particular treatment. These receptors are present on their surface and bind to drugs like Tamoxifen. What makes the triple negative breast cancer different and incurable is that it does not have any receptors on its surface. The only way found till now to cure this cancer is by means of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. These treatments further lower the chances of survival of the patient.

Also Read:Fight against Cancer: IIT, IIM Students Help Raise Surgery Fund for Batch Mate

Krtin is therefore trying to find a way to make these hard to treat cancers treatable. He is trying to find a way to make cancer respond to a treatment.

He further adds that the likely course of medication for those women patients with undifferentiated cancer or with cancer in which cells are stuck in an aggressive form is not preferable and that is why he is trying to find a way to make the cancer retrograde to a point where it is treatable again. One such way is to allow the cells to differentiate. The differentiation process is further hindered by the presence of the ID4 protein, so in order to allow the cells to differentiate, one will have to block ID4 protein from growing.

Krtin has found a solution for the same. He proudly explains his treatment which can stop the genes from producing the ID4 protein to help bring a dangerous cancer into a treatable form.

Also Read:Indian Origin Student Becomes Youngest CA of World

He explains that whether a patient will start responding to a particular treatment or not willl depend on if she has differentiated cells or not. He says that cancer cells multiply quickly, in case cells are differentiated, they will be healthy cells and take time to multiply, which will further slower the process. In case the cells are not differentiated, the cells will multiply quickly and aggressively resulting in formation of deadly tumours.

Also, during one of his experiments, he found out that by increasing the amount of PTEN (tumour suppressor gene) one can double the effectiveness of the treatment and chemotherapy.

For his excellent invention and contribution in the medical and research field, Krtin has been shortlisted for the final of the UK-based young scientists programme titled The Big Bang Fair. He also won an award at the Google Science Fair for devising a test to spot the Alzheimer’s, 10 years before diagnosis. CollegeDekho wishes Krtin Nithiyanandam all the very best!