Cancer in India – A Status Report
Present circumstances:
- The American Cancer Society recently released research showing a 33% decline in cancer-related deaths among Americans since 1991.
- Early detection, a drop in smoking rates, and improvements in cancer treatment are all credited with success.
- India has not yet seen this trend. Despite improvements in treatment, the incidence of cancer and mortality rates in the country are both rising.
The following are the report’s results about cancer cases:
- Human papillomavirus vaccination (HPV vaccine) recipients in their early 20s experienced a sharp decline in cervical cancer rates between 2012 and 2019, according to study reported in the US journal A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. This decline was 65% between 2012 and 2019.
- The prevalence of cervical and smoking-related cancers has dropped in India, despite an increase in lung and breast cancer incidence, according to doctors.
- Better screening and treatment facilities are required, as well as more complete connections between screening institutions and hospitals, if cancer mortality in the country is to be reduced.
What are India’s current cancer mortality and incidence rates?
- According to data from the National Cancer Registry of the Indian Council of Medical Research, 14.6 lakh new instances of cancer would be diagnosed globally in 2022, up from 14.2 lakh in 2021 and 13.9 lakh in 2020. (ICMR).
- The incidence of all cancers is anticipated to reach 15.7 lakh by 2025, up from the 7.9 lakh cancer-related fatalities anticipated in 2021 to 8.08 lakh in 2022.
- A study by the ICMR found that one in nine Indians will develop cancer at some time in their lives using data from population-based cancer registries.
- According to the study, 1 in 68 men will have lung cancer, and 1 in 29 women will get breast cancer.
- Women had 103.6 cancer cases per 100,000 people in 2020, compared to 94.1 men. Men are most likely to develop stomach, prostate, tongue, mouth, and lung cancers. Cancers of the breast, cervix, ovary, uterus, and lung are most common among women.
What causes some tumours to be on the decline while others are continuously growing?
- A former head of the AIIMS National Cancer Institute in Jhajjar named Prof. G. K. Rath claims that cervical cancer incidence in India has fallen over the past 50 years from 45 to 10 per 100,000 persons.
- “Breast cancer rates are also rising, especially in urban areas.
- Cervical cancer rates have dropped as a result of later marriages, fewer children, better hygiene, and immunizations.
- The same causes, such as high protein diets, later marriage ages, and later first childbirth ages, have also led to an increase in breast cancer incidence.
- The administration anticipates beginning a campaign soon as vaccines become more inexpensive. There is no specific intervention for breast cancers other than screening because its aetiology is unknown, unlike cervical cancer, which can be prevented with HPV vaccine.
- Additionally, there is a decrease in the prevalence of cancers linked to tobacco use, such as esophageal and oral cancers. This is at least partially attributable to laws against smoking in public.
- Lung cancers, however, are nonetheless a cause for concern.
- Lung cancer is not only brought on by smoking. For instance, because residents there light fires indoors throughout winter, Arunachal Pradesh has a high risk of lung cancer. Since Bihari women have spent years cooking over chullahs, lung cancer is a common disease among these women. We shall see the effects within the next ten years given Delhi’s air quality.
Have cancer treatments improved recently?
- Yes, the prognosis for several cancers is improving. And there are those who have triumphed over cancer.
- Compared to 3% fifty years ago, the survival rate for pancreatic cancer is now 6%.
- Prostate cancer is becoming more common than ever—from 60% to 100%. The success rate for breast cancer has increased from 50% to 90% thanks to new treatments.
- However, we must make sure that patients receive quick diagnosis and care in order to reduce mortality.
What steps must be taken to bring down general mortality:
- The initial intervention must be screening.
- The government has already started screening for the three most common types of cancer—breast, cervical, and oral—through its improved health and wellness centres.
- Patients are arriving at hospitals more swiftly as a result of these and other government measures.
- “The 80/20 rule, which asserts that just 20% of patients who arrive at the hospital late are curable while 80% of patients who arrive early are, is what I used to operate by.
- This has shifted to 70/30 in the previous ten years, with 30% of patients now showing up at hospitals earlier than anticipated.
- Because they account for 34% of cancer cases in India, screening for cervical, breast, and oral cancers is advantageous; nevertheless, it needs to be more focused in order to lower mortality. The greatest way to find cervical cancer is with dual staining, and the best way to find lung cancer in smokers is through a low-dose CT scan.
Conclusion:
- To promote screening, early cancer detection, and cancer-related case management, increasing public awareness is necessary.
- Numerous government programmes that are currently running independently must be coordinated in order for a person to arrive at a hospital after being screened.
- Government spending on infrastructure development, cancer-related technology implementation, research and development, and affordable access to cancer-related drugs should all be expanded.
