Indian Council of medical research (ICMR) recently released its report titled “Clinicopathological Profile of Cancers in India: A Report of Hospital Based Cancer Registries, 2021”. The report provides data on cancer cases in India. It was prepared by ICMR- National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Bengaluru.
Key findings of the report
- As per report, total of 6.10 lakh cancers have been reported in India in between 2012 to 2019.
- Out of these, 52.4 percent cases were reported among males while 47.6 percent cases were reported among females.
- These cases were reported under the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP).
- Childhood cancers (among 0-14 years old children) amount to 7.9 per cent of all cancer cases.
- Cancers due to tobacco use amounted to 48.7 per cent of cancers among males while 16.5 per cent among females.
- Under the NCRP, 13,32,207 cancer cases were registered from 96 hospitals during 2012-19. Out of these, 6,10,084 cases were included for analysis.
- One-third of patients, diagnosed with cancers of the tongue, thyroid, larynx, corpus uteri, kidney, bladder etc, had localized disease at the time of presentation.
Site-specific cancers
As per report, cancers of the head and neck region accounted for 31.2 per cent of the cancers in males. Gynaecologic cancers including breast cancer accounted for 51 per cent of all cancers in females. Relative proportion of site-specific cancers was greater in males as compared to females except for thyroid cancer and gall bladder cancer.
Treatment Modality
Most typical treatment modality for cancers was Chemotherapy, regardless of the clinical extent of disease at presentation.
National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP)
Cancer surveillance is an essential part of cancer prevention and control measures. To conduct regular surveillance, ICMR started NCRP in 1981, using a network of Population and Hospital Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs and HBCRs).