By Dinesh C Sharma, Metro India, April 15, 2014
Amidst the feverish pitch of the ongoing campaign for general elections 2014 has come a grim warning from the reputed medical journal, The Lancet Oncology. The warning is about the rising tide of cancer in India and disastrous impact it can have on the nation if we don’t wake up now. Gone are the days when cancer was used in Indian movies to add a bit of melodrama or conk off a character all of a sudden. The occurrence of cancer has indeed become so common that we hear about people suffering from it more often than a decade ago. India is certainly witnessing a rising tide of cancer by all accounts.The data presented in the Lancet series is frightening, though it is not new as such because our national agencies have been talking of these figures for a long time. Compared to the developed world, the incidence of various cancers in India is low but rates of death are similar to those of developed countries.
The numbers are large too, given the size of Indian population. Every year about 10 lakh new cancer cases are diagnosed and about 6 lakh to 7 lakh people die due to cancers. These are conservative estimates because the data gathering system of the government does not cover the entire population. The number of cancer deaths in India is projected to go up to 12 lakh a year in 2035. An alarming fact is that about 71 percent of deaths from cancer in India are in people aged 30 to 69 – people in their prime. This means cancer is taking away productive lives. Large number of premature deaths is not only a loss of families but a loss of productivity to the national economy. The high death toll due to cancers is due to two factors – late diagnosis and poor treatment outcomes. First of all, India does not have screening programmes for cancers, which means patients are not diagnosed until they have reached final stages.
Read the full story here:
http://metroindia.com/Details.aspx?id=29658
Amidst the feverish pitch of the ongoing campaign for general elections 2014 has come a grim warning from the reputed medical journal, The Lancet Oncology. The warning is about the rising tide of cancer in India and disastrous impact it can have on the nation if we don’t wake up now. Gone are the days when cancer was used in Indian movies to add a bit of melodrama or conk off a character all of a sudden. The occurrence of cancer has indeed become so common that we hear about people suffering from it more often than a decade ago. India is certainly witnessing a rising tide of cancer by all accounts.The data presented in the Lancet series is frightening, though it is not new as such because our national agencies have been talking of these figures for a long time. Compared to the developed world, the incidence of various cancers in India is low but rates of death are similar to those of developed countries.
The numbers are large too, given the size of Indian population. Every year about 10 lakh new cancer cases are diagnosed and about 6 lakh to 7 lakh people die due to cancers. These are conservative estimates because the data gathering system of the government does not cover the entire population. The number of cancer deaths in India is projected to go up to 12 lakh a year in 2035. An alarming fact is that about 71 percent of deaths from cancer in India are in people aged 30 to 69 – people in their prime. This means cancer is taking away productive lives. Large number of premature deaths is not only a loss of families but a loss of productivity to the national economy. The high death toll due to cancers is due to two factors – late diagnosis and poor treatment outcomes. First of all, India does not have screening programmes for cancers, which means patients are not diagnosed until they have reached final stages.
Read the full story here:
http://metroindia.com/Details.aspx?id=29658
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