Topic of cancer

Every year between 3 to 4 lakh people in India die of cancer. Worldwide, it is one of the top 10 leading causes of death. Yet, all too often this ancient and potentially fatal disease loses out in the race for policy attention, usually to heart disease or AIDS.

By setting aside Rs2400 crore to fight cancer in India, Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has brought this dangerous disease into sharper focus. This new allocation, under the National Cancer Control Programme in the 11th five-year-plan, is 10 times more than what was set aside in the previous plan.

While Azad’s focus on cancer is welcome, it shows how much cancer detection, prevention and treatment have been neglected over the years. This is odd, considering that India gets 7 lakh new cases a year and some 15 lakh people require facilities for check-ups and treatment at any given time.

Our cancer facilities may have improved in the past decade or so — under the National Cancer Control Programme there are 27 regional cancer institutes and 40 oncology institutes —  but these are still grossly inadequate. This new scheme will allow community-based cancer prevention and control strategies and mobile outreach projects which ought to reduce the burden on large hospitals by early detection.

The financial assistance to those patients below the poverty line and the network of all cancer centres in India will also help with diagnosis and treatment. Oncology departments in medical colleges will also get a much-needed fillip; cancer-related content in MBBS courses is quite low at the moment.

These initiatives will attack the problem at the patient level — rather than focusing on awareness and high-profile events or personalities. An unfortunate comparison is to the former health minister A Ramadoss’s ideas about reducing the incidence of tobacco-related cancers by concentrating on film stars and advertising, though the initiative at least put the spotlight on the subject.

The problems with cancer are much more life-threatening than can be tackled merely with warning signs on cigarette packets or smoking in movies. In today’s media-obsessed world, it is the public image that matters more than the actual issue.

Cancer has also been a victim of this, where more pink ribbons are distributed for breast cancer awareness than there are breast cancer detection camps. If all aspects of tackling a disease do not work together, you get a lop-sided response. This injection of money is welcome, but it has to be correctly administered to make a real difference.