From retching for several hours to pain in her throat every time she swallowed, K Kavitha, a 52-year-old breast cancer survivor grimaces every time she recalls her battle. She felt like her body was being beaten to get the abnormal growth out.

"My initial fear of death was numbed by the chemotherapy cycles.At one point, I almost gave up," said Kavitha, a homemaker who was diagnosed in 2005. For most cancer patients, the treatment is as gruelling as the disease. From hair loss to anaemia to nausea, chemotherapy often involves killing of healthy cells along with cancerous ones, with crippling side effects.

As people struggle to cope with the physical stress and the emotional trauma of cancer and its treatment, a lab in the department of biotechnology at IIT-Madras has been working for more than five years to reduce the burden of chemo drugs on the body .....click for more

source web page:THE TIMES OF INDIA