Cancer in India: Screening exists, but why are patients still diagnosed late

NewsIndia NewsCancer in India: Screening exists, but why are patients still diagnosed late Cancer in India: Screening exists, but why are patients still diagnosed late Cancer in India is often found late. By the time many patients are diagnosed, the disease has already advanced, when treatment is harder and the chances of survival are lower.

Part of the explanation lies in how screening is organised in the country, and part lies in how people respond to early warning signs.The stakes are considerable. The Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Cancer Registry Programme estimated 13.92 lakh new cancer cases in India in 2020, up from 13.25 lakh in 2018, and about 7.7 lakh cancer deaths in 2020, according to figures the Union Health Ministry placed before Lok Sabha.

The question that follows is how many of these cases could have been caught sooner.A public programme that exists, and a habit that has not formedIndia does run a public screening system. The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke, now called the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), was launched in 2010 in 100 districts across 21 states.

In 2016, population-based screening was added for everyone aged 30 and above. It covers hypertension, diabetes and three cancers: of the oral cavity, the cervix and the breast.The design is meant to bring screening close to the community.

Under the Health Ministry’s guidelines, an ASHA worker completes a Community Based Assessment Checklist. People aged 30 to 65 are then offered an oral visual examination and, for women, a clinical breast examination and a visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid.

InsightfulAgreeDisagreeSkepticalConcerningPromisingWorth ReadingBig Development What it will takeThe pieces are not missing. A public programme offers screening for three cancers to people aged 30 to 65. A vaccination campaign is reaching 14-year-old girls through government facilities, and the Budget has announced day-care cancer centres for district hospitals.

What the 2019–21 survey shows is a gap between what is offered and what people take up, with fewer than two in every hundred women aged 30 to 49 having ever been screened for cervical cancer.Dr Prasad’s account of that gap is a simple one: people do not think it can happen to them.

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