1 week Ago By Steffy Thevar
Pune: Maharashtra , which has the largest cancer burden in the country, is yet to make cancer a notifiable disease . Of the 28 states in India, only 15 have declared cancer as a notifiable disease, despite the parliamentary board’s recommendation. This means that every cancer patient undergoing treatment in a private or public hospital must be registered with the govt’s database.
This database helps the govt to ensure enough healthcare workforce , funds, and machinery in the public healthcare sector. However, without this database, the health policies around cancer are like a shot in the dark. The first state to make cancer a notifiable disease was Tripura in 2008, with latest addition being Andhra Pradesh, the 15th state, in 2022.
In 2008, the Indian Council of Medical Research ( ICMR ) recommended making cancer a notifiable disease in the country. However, in the past 16 years, only 15 states out of 28 have made it notifiable. According to a 2021 ICMR report, Maharashtra’s population-based cancer registry covers eight cities and districts, while the hospital-based cancer registry covers only five hospitals.
The national population-based cancer registry (PBCR) programme in the state collects data from eight regions — Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Beed, Barshi Rural, Mumbai, Pune, Wardha, and Nagpur, while the hospital-based registry includes data from five hospitals, of which two are from Mumbai, including Tata Memorial Centre, Ahmednagar, Kolhapur, and Nagpur.The state also relies on national cancer registry programme, which also has limited coverage. Based on these registries and national cancer registry programme, there are only 8,424 oral cancer patients in the state, 3,483 breast cancer patients, and 5,037 cervical cancer patients until June this year.
However, this is a very skewed ratio. The state health department said due to limited cancer registries, it's not possible to determine the total number of cancer patients in Maharashtra. It is estimated that the projected incidence of cancer cases among men would go up from 54,000 in 2020 to 61,000 in 2025, while in women it would go up from 61,000 to 68,000.
There are only four specialised cancer hospitals: Mumbai’s Tata Memorial, Nagpur’s Rashtrasant Tukdoji Regional Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Chatrapati Sambhajinagar's Government Medical College and Latur’s Vivekananda Foundation & Research Centre. Tata Memorial also operates a National Cancer Grid. Dr CS Pramesh, NCG convener said, “The objective was to create a union of cancer care centres to provide high standards of care and develop human resources to handle cancer care needs.
” Dr Dinesh Sutar, assistant director of health services, Maharashtra, said, “For now, the state gets its data from limited cancer registries. We sent a proposal to govt in 2022 to make cancer notifiable but are yet to receive a reply.” Dr Vijay Bawiskar, joint commissioner of health services and in-charge of NCD, said, “Notifying cancer will help us plan policies and infrastructure.
” Repeated calls and messages to Milind Mhaiskar, additional chief secretary, public health, and Tanaji Sawant, health minister, Maharashtra, did not elicit any response. (The correspondent is a recipient of the 2024 REACH Media Fellowships for Reporting on Non-Communicable Diseases).
