Even as India battles Covid-19, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in its report released on Tuesday has painted grim picture of the cancer incidence in India in the near future estimating that there will be an estimated 12 per cent rise in cancer cases in India in next five years.

According to the estimates of the National Cancer Registry Programme Report 2020, released by the ICMR in association with National Centre for Disease Informatics & Research (NCDIR) Bengaluru, there will be about 13.9 lakhs cancer cases in 2020 which is likely to increase to 15.7 lakhs by 2025, based on current trends.

The estimates are based on information related to cancer collected from 28 Population Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs). Additionally, 58 Hospital Based Cancer Registries (HBCRs) provided cancer data (see box).

Majority of States in India have not declared cancer as a notifiable disease. So far, only nine States in India have cancer as a notifiable disease so far either as administrative order or Gazette notification, including Karnataka.

“Emphasis to be given to making cancer a notifiable disease to enable increase coverage by registries and establishment of registries in areas hitherto uncovered regions to get a more comprehensive national picture,” said Dr Ravi Mehrotra, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), India Cancer Research Consortium (ICMR).

“This will help in better cancer screening, early detection, referral, treatment and palliative care services throughout the country. Sikkim was the only state in India to actually show a decrease in cancer prevalence for both genders, reflecting their good public health system and aware population,” he said adding people living in NE India have more than double the chances of developing Cancer compared to other regions.