In a report published by the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) named ‘Clinicopathological Profile of Cancers in India: A Report of the Hospital Based Cancer Registries, 2021’, it is noted that Childhood (0-14 years) cancers constitute 7.9% of all cancers. The cases in males (52.4%) is higher than females (47.4%) where gynaecological cancers, including breast cancer comprises over half of all cancers.
The report is prepared by including 6,10,084 cases for analysis out of a total of 13,32,207 cancer cases registered from 96 hospitals under the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) during 2012-19.
Cancers of the head and neck region accounted for nearly one third (31.2%) among males. The highest proportion of cancer from all sites was reported in the 45 to 64 years age group, except for prostate cancer in males, which was higher in those over 65 years.
The report states that over one-third of patients with cancers of the tongue, larynx, thyroid, corpus uteri, kidney (including children), bladder and retinoblastoma had localised disease at the time of presentation.
“Chemotherapy was the most typical treatment for many cancers regardless of the clinical extent of disease, including cancers of the liver, gallbladder, stomach, lung and childhood cancers” states the report.
Over half the patients with cancer of the brain and nervous system, and about one-third of the patients of lung, prostate, bladder, and thyroid cancer diagnosed at the reporting institution, were initiated on cancer directed treatment on the same day and most patients, were initiated on cancer-directed treatment within 8 to 30 days of diagnosis, states the report
