National Cancer Registry Programme will release its first report of cancer survival studies in India.
For the first time, India will get its report on Cancer Survival Studies that was initiated as part of National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP). Cancer of the cervix, breast, head and neck are the most common in India and will be covered in the report.
“Initially, we started collecting survival data manually and over the last two years, we are maintaining it in a software database. The workshop with oncologists has been scheduled in the city between February 7 and February 9, where we are going to discuss the preliminary reports that we received from Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital etc. However, the final launch of the study will take some time and will de decided during the workshop,” said Dr Nanda Kumar, director, NCRP.
The five centres from the city involved in this study are Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Healthcare Global Ltd (HCG), Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre, St John’s Medical College Hospital and MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital.
Since its inception in 1981, NCRP has collected data on the incidence of different forms of cancer, and the regional distribution of the disease across the country for the past 15 years. But this is the first time that a consolidated data on the treatment and survival of the cancer patients will be available.
“All developed nations already do have their Cancer Survival Study and it is only now that India will also have one. The process started a couple of years ago in India. Each state had a nodal centre where data was collected and in Bangalore it was the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology. However, in the workshop scheduled next week, a software device will be handed over to the oncologists. Henceforth, all case studies will be put to a central data bank by the doctors through this device, to speed up the entire process,” said Moni Abraham Kuriakose, chief, head and neck oncology, Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre.
“We expect that we will have a detailed record of the disease, treatment and entire survival period of cancer patients, provided a good surveillance is maintained,” he said.
A cancer survival study is helpful both for the patients as well as the oncologists, said experts.
“However, in a country like India getting a survival study like this is difficult, since no method exists to do a follow up check on the patients already treated. Such survival studies are available overseas and in most cases, these studies are done over 10 years to 15 years. At least, a five-year post-treatment survival study is a necessity,” Dr Kumar Swamy, consultant, radiation oncologist, HCG Cancer Centre. Through the survival study of the National Cancer Registry, based in the UK, it was found that the survivor rate is lower than any other European countries.
A survival study helps doctors evaluate the effectiveness of any new therapy and treatment.
However, individual cancer centres cannot have survival
studies as it needs large-scale data.
“Centres can only collect data about the survival and quality of life of patients post treatment, that needs to be consolidated and analysed on a larger scale,” added
Dr Swamy.
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