Division of Research

Major research areas of our lab is the evaluation of the immunological and molecular alterations in cancers such as those of the Breast, Oral cavity, Uterine cervix, and Gestational Trophoblastic Diseases (GTD) and assessing the potential use of these in the management of cancer patients. The involvement of HPV and EBV and their biological consequence on these cancers are being also evaluated. Previous studies conducted by our group demonstrated the presence of blocking factors and anti-tumour antibodies in the serum of oral cancer patients and its effect on the T lymphocyte functions that could lead to the immune impairment. Based on our work we devised an immunological staging system to predict response to treatment in cancer of the uterine cervix. Our group is the only one in India working on the biology of GTD that is seen to have a high incidence in the State of Kerala, where we have been able to show that the disease is due to an accumulation of cells rather than increased proliferation. Our current research in breast cancer is directed towards identification of the invasive potential of the tumour. The observations show down-regulation of cadherins and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor to be closely related to the invasive potential of the tumour. Our group is also actively involved in herbal drug research, which includes an ayurvedic drug Indukantha Gritha that demonstrated to be a potent immunomodulator inducing Th1 type response. Recently, major medicinal plants in Indukantha Ghritha have been evaluated for immunomodulatory/anti-tumour activities.

1. Immunomodulation of T-cell signal transduction by exosomes from oral cancer patients (Funded by KSCSTE).

2. Influence of Indukantha Ghritha- an ayurvedic rasayana on immune responses and prognosis in oral cancer patients – a feasibility study. (Funded by Kerala biotechnology board, KSCSTE)

Suraj.K.George, R.Rajesh, Sunil Kumar.S, B. Sulekha, Prabha Balaram. A Polyherbal ayurvedic drug-Indukantha Ghritha as an adjuvant to cancer chemotherapy via immunomodulation. Immunobiology, in press (2008)
Veronica S Jeydoss, Vijayalekshmi MD, Balaraman Nair M, Devaraj H, Devaraj N, Prabha Balaram. Altered expression of invasion/metastasis related proteins in carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Cancer Therapy 3: 347-356, 2005.
Smriti M Krishna, Susan James and Prabha Balaram. Expression of VEGF as prognosticator in primary nasopharyngeal cancer and its relation to EBV status. Virus Res. 115: 85-90, 2006.
Smriti.M.Krishna, Susan James, Jayasree.Kattoor, Prabha Balaram. Serum EBNA-1 DNA as prognosticator in primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma of Indian origin. Jap J Clin Oncol . 34: 307-311, 2004.
Herrerro R, Castellsague X, Pawlita M, Lissowska J, Kee F, Prabha Balaram, Rajkumar T, Sridhar H, Rose B, Pintos J, Fernandez L, Idris A, Sanchez MJ, Nieto a, Talamani R, Tavani A, Bosch FX, Reidel U, Snijders PJF, Meijer CJLM, Viscidi R, Munoz N, Franceschi S : Human papillomavirus and Oral Cancer: The International Agency for Research on Cancer Multicentre Study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 95:1772-83, 2003.
Maya Madhavan, Elizabeth Abraham, Iqbal Ahmed, Priya Srinivas, Vijayalekshmi NR, and Prabha Balaram: Downregulation of endothelial adhesion molecules in node positive breast cancer: possible failure of host defence mechanism. Pathology Oncology Research 8: 125-128, 2002.
Prabha Balaram, Hema Sridhar, Rajkumar T, Vaccarella S, Herrero R, Nandakumar A, Ravichandran K, Ramdas K, Sankaranarayanan R, Gajalekshmi V, Munoz N, Franceschi S. Oral cancer in Southern India: the influence of smoking, drinking, paan-chewing and oral hygiene. Int.J Cancer 98: 440-445, 2002
Priya Srinivas, E Abraham, I Ahamed, M Madhavan, N.R. Vijayalekshmy, M K Nair, Prabha Balaram. Apoptotic index: use in predicting recurrence in breast cancer patients. J Clin. Cancer Res 21: 487-492, 2002.
F. L. Martin, K. J. Cole, G. Weaver, G. S. Hong, B. C. Lam, P. Balaram, P. L. Grover,andD.H.Phillips. Genotoxicity of human breast milk from different countries Mutagenesis 16: 401-406, 2001.
Prabha Balaram, Mollykutty John, Swapna Enose, Syamala PK.Demonstration of TGF alpha-EGFR and EGF-EGFR autocrine loops and its relation to proliferation in Complete Hydatidiform Moles (CHM) Int. J. Gynecol.Cancer 11; 397-402, 2001.
Maya Madhavan, Priya Srinivas, Elizabeth Abraham, Iqbal Ahmed, Aleyamma Mathew, Prabha Balaram: Cadherins as predictive markers of nodal metastasis in breast cancer. Modern Pathology 14(5): 423-427, 2001.

Mr. N.K. Hareendran hareendrannk@yahoo.co.in
Mrs. Mayjo. K. Jose mayjorcc@yahoo.co.in

1. Saroja Devi
2. Maya Madhavan
3. Jemima Jacob jemimajacob@yahoo.co.in
4. Salini Pramod salinipramod@gmail.com
5. Vino. T. cheriyan vinorcc@gmail.com
6. Suraj. K. George surajrcc@gmail.com
7. Praveena Krishnan praveenarcc@gmail.com

1 Dr. M. Radhakrishnan Pillai
2 Dr .S. Kannan
3 Dr. Thomas Abraham
4 Dr. Mollykutty John
5 Dr. Swapna Alex
6 Dr. Priya Srinivas
7 Dr. Prishla Varghese
8 Dr. Smriti M. Krishna
9 Rajesh .R rajeshrcc@gmail.com